Stitch It, Paint It, Lose It, and Good Night!

Well I've been up to nothing much. Just the same old thing. Today I went to Whole Foods and picked up a few things. I saw on Dr. Oz that Coconut Palm Sugar was good for diabetics. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes with my last two pregnancies. Although it goes away after birth, I'm left thinking about my health. For the first time ever, I lost weight during pregnancy! Oh no don't worry, it's not bad, it was good. I was over my weight limit anyway. I was given the pills to take instead of the insulin shots. I was grateful to be given the chance to try them out first this time. Any how I saw that with the controlled glucose levels I went down a few pounds. Hmmm. So I'm on the mission to actually get serious about dropping this weight I gained with pregnancy. I picked up some Coconut Crystals for an alternative sugar.  Funny because I do not like coconut at all! I read on the can that it doesn't have a coconut taste. We shall see! I also bought some unrefined and unbleached sugar. It too is said to not spike glucose levels. I hope these work.

In addition to the alternative sugars, I bought some more Pu-erh tea. I've heard good reports on this. It's supposed to aide in weight loss. I'm excited to try this. I got some Pu-erh tea from Teavana. It wasn't bad but I think I was making this wrong. The instructions on the can were for an 8oz glass of tea instead of a pot. Oops! Lets try again lol.

The weather is getting warmer so we are out of the house more. Today we hiked the big hill up to our house. It was a nice walk. We shall do it again! Baby Fia was in the Moby like wrap I made. She feel asleep as we got back home. Must have been a good walk then!

Well as you may have noticed, I like to make things. Sometimes I get project overload so I decided to give myself a limit. I've made a project wall. It's not a wall it's actually an 8.5x10 printed out sheet with a border around it. It keeps me within safe boundaries lol. Here it is

. If the "Stitch It" is full then I can't add any more projects. I've got to finish one on the board first. They have to be the same size as a wallet size photo too. No cheating and no wait listing lol! I actually thought of doing that! Silly me. It will just push me to actually complete the projects I want to do.

So one thing that was not on the Stitch It board was this canvas painting. I have always wanted to do a canvas painting. I did one on Valentine's Day for my dear husband. I'm not sure how well he liked it since I don't think he would hurt my feelings in this situation. I tried and I'm going to try again. Here is my first Abstract Canvas Painting. It doesn't have a name or meaning really. I was just painting.

:)

It's Late Thirty A.M and time for me to go to bed. 

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Projects and Such

Well Hello All! I hope this winter season has been a great one. For me it's been rather mild. I am ready for weather I don't need a jacket for though. Then again I'm always ready for that! I've got a few projects going at the moment.   Today I finished off some homemade diaper inserts. We use gdiapers and we love them. We were using the disposable/flushable liners which are great, but we are having to buy them all the time. So the cost effective advantage isn't there. We bought the Flip inserts but they have this ammonia odor that is just ugly! So I haven't used them much since we bought. After dealing with the smell all we could, we went back to using the disposable/flushable inserts. Recently I saw a tutorial on http://seekatesew.blogspot.com that I found fairly easy to use.  I don't have a serger so I did a zig zag stitch around the edges. I made them with soft fleece and a plain cotton cute fabric. Got it all on sale at Hancock Fabrics. Thank you to Kate for the tutorial! Hers look so much better. It was an easy project and a money saver!  I'm in the middle of making our own diaper bag.  We need a bigger diaper bag with a toddler and baby. I decided to take on the challenge of creating one that fit our needs. I have a list of things that we need to have and created the diaper bag off of that list. I've got the bag done with the pocket inserts inside. My problem now is it's flopping inward. I wanted the sides to be a bit more sturdy. So I'm trying to sort that out.  My son says it looks more like a nanny bag with the sides floppy. lol Thanks son!Guess what! Baby Fia turns 5 months today!   She's such a snuggle bug too. Every morning she wakes up with a smile.  I hope she never loses that joy. I'm happy that all is well and she still hasn't got any teeth coming through! It keeps me in denial that she's growing up lol! She does like to try and talk which is too cute! I am so very proud of my dear friend and sister Tony Robinson! She has written her first book and Wow what a great one it is! I can't say enough about her. Tony has been there for me every since my older kids were toddlers. She's seen me through good and bad. She's hung in there with me through my crazy times. She's talked sense into my head during my "I'm about to lose it!" moments. She's seen just about the worst of me and has always been able to bring me down to earth lol! I tell you, she, Tony Robinson has been a priceless friend. She's always given me great spiritual advice in every situation. She is an inspiration, an encourager, and a Well Watered Woman! I pray your cup runs over with blessings from the Lord! Please do purchase her book Water From The Well. You will be blessed!  I got my copy and saw she even put in a mention for measly ol me! Love you Tony! Along with spiritual growth we've been doing the 100 days of Real food challenge for physical health. It's not bad! I am surprised at how easy it is to do. We've enjoyed the food and plan to stay on this path. I do wish our Whole  Foods store wasn't so busy. I have to figure out when the best time to go shopping there. Today I've decided besides the Tofu Chocolate Pie, I like the Strawberry Parfait! We make them in these little cups. Yes we do recycle them! I think after we are finished we will invest in some better clear cups we'll keep. So we use some granola we found at Target by Archer Farms it's French Vanilla Almond Crunch. (lol wait does this count as "real food" since I'm not making it??) , Maybe I will looking to trying to make it. Not sure yet but anyway we use that Granola, strawberries, drizzle it with honey, and then Vanilla Yogurt. I repeat until the cup is full. Yummy! Just closing with this, I made these little shoes for Helaina. She rarely wore them. I am so happy baby Fia can! I plan on making a few more shoes for her but using a different pattern. They are so easy to make! I haven't found a pattern I've settled on yet. I've just done a google image search on "Make baby shoes" and saw all the cute shoes! Oh brain overload! Ok on that note, I'm out. Enjoy your day!

I just can't help it. Wait Yes I can!

and again... found a new homemade project! I want to make my own coffee creamer! Mad scientists suit up! A friend of mine shared a site with us as we chatted about stevia sweetner. Here is the link to the recipes deliciouslyorganic.net this is a beautiful site I will be following all over the place. Another project I hope to work on is the Craft Hope website.crafthope.com Please do check this out. If you do any crafts or sewing please help. This current project is helping kids who are fighting cancer. These are simple and easy project to help spread happiness. Please get involved! Thats all for now...