1. Do one thing, once a month, to make my house more inviting and cozy.

I’m almost there. I am desperately trying to find time and energy to finish quilting and binding my quilt. I’m not sure if I’ll finish by the end of the month, but I am pleased that I’ve made headway on some other organizing tasks.
2. Exercise a minimum of 45 minutes/ 4x a week.

With the illnesses, this hasn’t been quite this amount, but much closer than I thought. I hope that I can kick this dumb cold so I can get to it.

3. Tackle a list I have of little home improvement/decluttering tasks like doing touch up paint, organizing drawers, etc. One thing per week.

This has been going really well! I have tackled quite a few tasks, but unfortunately, I have been remiss to document them photographically. I have redone our linen closet, decluttered our office/craft room, made a “donation station” and have been purging things as I clean, and cleaned and organized the toy corner. I will try to be better about taking before/after pics.

4. Donate at least $1000 to Heifer International

I will be donating at least $200 mid February.

5. Attend church 1x per month, in addition to hosting a bi weekly bible study.

I did host bible study, but won’t make it to church this month unless I am significantly better by Sunday.

6. Focus diet on whole, unprocessed foods. Aim to eat well 80% of the time.

I have definitely done this, and am really pleased about it. As a result, I am down 15 pounds since December 26th, 2011.

The other things are future ventures, so nothing to report there.

I feel really good about the progress I’ve made, and I’m looking forward to feeling well so that I can make even more progress!

1. Do one thing, once a month, to make my house more inviting and cozy.
2. Exercise a minimum of 45 minutes/ 4x a week.
3. Tackle a list I have of little home improvement/decluttering tasks like doing touch up paint, organizing drawers, etc. One thing per week.
4. Donate at least $1000 to Heifer International
5. Attend church 1x per month, in addition to hosting a bi weekly bible study.
6. Focus diet on whole, unprocessed foods. Aim to eat well 80% of the time.
7. Finish another sprint triathlon and the aquabike race (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike)
8. Ride my bike to and from work once a week starting in May.

This is a pretty ambitious list, but I think it is doable, for certain. I would love to hear what your goals are!

What’s a KIFFLE, you ask? It is a sugary, nut filled pastry. My grandmother also topped them with icing. (Because, we’re fat cool like that.)

Anyhow, my grandmother was a baking genius. She made all kinds of treats, but the most treasured were kiffles. No one in our family has ever successfully attempted kiffles until today. Behold…my triumph:

Flaky, sweet, delicious goodness. Booyah!!!

Anyhow….the winner, chosen at random by my handsome son is….

Kate!

Congrats, Kate!

My giftee requested an apron. I won’t lie; this made me pretty anxious. I’m not very comfortable with garment making, and certainly not figuring out something on the fly. But, in the end, I think I did ok.

The apron, modeled by my boy, who made me promise I wouldn’t include his face in the pic:

And I also made a trivet and a towel to go with:

Melissa had me, and she blew me away with her generosity! She made me a gorgeous tree on canvas, a wooden spool tree and a table runner!

This is such a fabulous quilting group to belong to!

So, I went to the thrift store and found 3, 100% wool sweaters. They were $4.99 each, which, incidentally is the same amount JoAnn’s charges for a yard of felt.

First I cut the seams out of the sweaters and removed the ribbing:

Next I threw all of the pieces in the washer and washed them with my usual amount of detergent on hot. I was less than thrilled with the results, so I did a little research and found that I needed friction to create the felting effect I was looking for. So, I added some towels, re-washed and that was perfect. I then dried the whole mess on hot, too.

Here’s my little pile o’ felt:

And the individual pieces:

(I need to clean off my cutting table!)

It is currently 0 degrees outside, so a wool hat with a pretty little flower seemed just the right thing to make. I used an existing hat I had and traced around it on the felt pieces and then surged them together. Then I used one of the ribbed waistbands to use as the cuff of the hat, and then added the flower.

Here’s Lily modeling, with glee…I might add. I’ll never get the hat back:

(Blurry because I was trying to get her without flash and she just doesn’t EVER hold still. )

And then I made this little pin:

Not the best photo, but it sure has been fun making some new things!

101 Tees: Restyle + Refashion + Revamp

by Cathie Filian

From Amazon:

5×7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

I might be biased, but aren’t my kids cute??

What in the world happened over here? I swear it seemed like yesterday that I posted about the quilt I was going to make, because the weather was getting cooler, (in SEPTEMBER!!!)  and now it is December 1!

I celebrated my 39th birthday yesterday. At one time, this birthday would have bothered me. But now, I just feel indifferent. Time marches on, with or without us, and I just choose to count myself blessed with each day I have here, ever looking forward to the eternal life that awaits me.

I’ll do a little recap of any crafts or whatever in a future post, and I also have a giveaway planned very soon! My first!

But, for now, I am enjoying the crackle of the fire, my family gathered around me and the serene silence that the snow brings.

Until tomorrow…

I found myself so drawn to it that I bought a jelly roll of it and went home to peruse patterns.

I landed on this pattern:

Modern, but simple and I like the more traditional looking florals in the fabric.

I am waiting impatiently for my other fabric to arrive so I can start!