October 2007Monthly Archives

Chocolat

I had a great time at the Elegant Stitch Chocolat retreat. Chocolate was definitely the theme of the weekend. Jackie du Plessis is a wonderful teacher and Lois spoiled us rotten. She gave us each a pair of little scissors with a fob, an awl, a beautiful handmade fabric-covered box which contained some Thread Heaven and some handmade waxers, and a beautiful sterling silver Kiss necklace.

Jackie’s Chocolat class piece is just amazing! I’ve been having a wonderful time stitching on it the past few days. Here is a pic of what it will all look like when I have it completed … one of these years.

Since my last update, I also finished up a Halloween exchange on the USEBB. Terry stitched the Boo scissor pocket from The Drawn Thread for me. She even edged the whole thing in beads! It’s really beautiful. I got several compliments on it this weekend at the retreat.

I stitched a witchy pinkeep for Goldie. It’s from the new Pumpkin Patch chart from The Prairie Schooler. I used some black antique German matte glass head pins that I got from Merry Cox last year.

I also finished up the last two square for the Prairie Schooler exchange I was in on the PS board. There were only 4 of us in the exchange, so we decided to each stitch a square for the other 3 participants. We started in August and mailed out a square each month ending up earlier this month. Here are the 3 squares I sent and the 3 squares I received:

Sent:


For Sandy	For Christina	For Barbara

Received:


From Barbara	From Christina	From Sandy

That’s it for now. I’ll try to post some WIP pictures next time. Happy Stitching!

22 October 2007

Cross Stitch, Travel

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Weekly Weigh In/Swim Class

I had my weekly WW meeting today and I was down another 1.2 pounds. I was really shocked that it was that much considering I’d dropped nearly 4 pounds last week. Generally speaking, whenever I have a nice big loss, I usually done see much of a drop the following week. To say the least, I was VERY happy. This brings my total for my cruise goal to 5.9 pounds lost which means I’m 38% toward reaching my goal.

My swimming class also started tonight. As it turns out, I’m the only student in the class. So, I’m getting private instruction at group instruction prices. The coach was great! He was very encouraging and really great at explaining any adjusts he saw that I needed to correct in my form. I ended up swimming 8 laps (25m pool) during my 30 minute class. I’m forgotten just how much work swimming actually is! Oh well, it gives me another area to measure for progress.

15 October 2007

Challenges

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Sunday Training Report

Ok, so I’ve decided to make this a weekly feature on my blog now. Each Sunday I will post an update on my training for the past week. I’m a total numbers geek, so I love seeing my progress.

Bike: 50m – 10 Mi
Walk/Run: 2h 59m 53s – 9 Mi

I’m definitely seeing progress in the walk/run category. Last week I was doing intervals of 30 seconds of running followed by 4.5 minutes of walking. This week my schedule bumped it up to doing 30 seconds of running followed by 2.5 minutes of walking. Twice during the week I actually did more intervals than the training schedule called for me to do. Each time I also added extra walking time at the end of the intervals. The schedule always calls for a 30 minute training time, but since I have the 5k race coming up at Thanksgiving, I also need to work on getting in extra mileage so that I’ll be ready for the race.

Today I did a total of 10 intervals (:30 run/2:30 walk) and then added the extra walking time. I got in a total of 2.7 miles in 50 minutes. I’m definitely feeling good about where I am in my training in order to be prepared for the 5k. I may be slow, but I’ll be ready.

The time has finally come for my swim class to start, too. I’ll be heading over to the Y after work tomorrow night for the first session. Hopefully I’ll still be excited about it as I’m leaving to come home after class.

14 October 2007

Stitching

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6 Months

Wow, what a difference 6 months can make it one’s life. It’s hard to believe that 26 weeks ago today I underwent 2 surgeries on the same day — a multi-level spinal fusion and an ulner nerve decompression in my right arm. Those first couple of weeks after my surgery were so rough, I’d kind of wondered if I would ever be myself again.

Now, here I am, 6 months later. I’ve been back at work full-time for just over 2 months (I was part time for a month before that, too.). I’m back on track with my weight loss journey. I’m back exercising again — not only just exercising, but running! If someone had asked me 6 months ago if I would be running now, I would’ve laughed at them, but not for long because it would’ve hurt.

That was then, this is now. Who knew 6 months could make such a change?!

On the training front, I hit the gym again tonight after work. I put in 4 miles on the stationary bike followed immediately by 1.7 miles on the treadmill using the hill program. This brings my total run/walking mileage for my October challenge up to 10.7 miles, so I’m over half way done to meeting my goal of 20 miles this month.

11 October 2007

Thoughts

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Couch Potato No More!!

Ok, I admit it. I’m becoming a bit of a gym rat again and I’m loving it! I’ve definitely settled into a nice routine of hitting the gym after work. Monday night and tonight were running nights for me, and I got in more time on the spin bike on Tuesday night. My plan for tomorrow night is more time on the bike and either some treadmill walking or time on the elliptical trainer.

The running plan is going really well. Tonight was a bump up in running time vs. the walking recovery time. I did 9 intervals of 30 seconds of running following by 2.5 minutes of walking. I checked my heart rate periodically throughout the time I was on the treadmill and I seemed to pretty much be on target with where I need to be, so that’s good. My plan was actually to do 8 intervals, but when I finished and went back and did the time math, I must’ve lost count since I ended up with 9 intervals. I’ve actually managed to get in a total of 9 hours of running/walking already this month.

10 October 2007

Stitching

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Weekly Weigh In

I had a GREAT weigh in this week. I was down 3.8 pounds! Ok, so I know most of it was the weight I gained when I was on the antibiotics and steroids about 10 days ago, but it still felt great to see such a big chunk of it come back off this week.

I had a great walk/run tonight. I went for 2.1 miles in 43 minutes which included my warm-up and cool-down time. The second mile was much slower than the first but more enjoyable, too. As I was finishing up my first mile, one of my neighbors came out and walked with me on the second mile. We spent more time talking and catching up than we did worrying out how fast we were walking and such. It was fun and made getting in that second mile go much faster even though I was going slower. Does that make sense?

The swimming countdown has begun. I’ll start my swim class one week for today. I’m really looking forward to it, much more so than I expected. Hopefully I’ll still feel that way after my first class next week.

Challenge Updates:

October Walk/Run Challenge: 7 miles of 20 completed (35% done)
Cruise Weight Loss Goal: Down 4.7 pounds of 15.6 (30% done)