Weigh in- not on Wednesday

So it snowed here on Tuesday so I was not able to go to my meeting. So I weighed at home- 176.4!!!!!!!!!!!! I am down 10 pounds from my starting weight. I am so excited.
I have to tell you though- it is really disheartening to post and never get a comment. I am pretty sure no one actually is reading but since I need this to keep me honest I will keep posting. I am trying to decide what my next craft it project will be. I am thinking maybe the Cameron Cubby Storage system from Pottery Barn Kids. Ana at Knock Off Wood has posted plans on how to build this system. I am thinking I will do this configuration in my studio:
Photo courtesy of Pottery Barn Kids.

Stair conundrum!

When my blogging friend at Thrifty Decor Chick redid her stairs, I immediately added that project to my list of to dos for the future. Well, a small influx of money and my daughter throwing up chocolate and clementine tangerines allover 4 stairs resulting in me pulling up the corner of the carpet. Dang! It was 2x12 boards, the cheapest stuff and totally rough cut, evidently the builder thought carpet would hide a million evils. And the risers were cheap particle board. But I was determined so I found new treads at Lowes (9.95 each, very nicely joined pine with a nice bullnose edge) Thanks to my dad we did this in stages. We would pull off two board and two risers (no pulling staples, Yeah!!!!!!!!) and then replace them with treads and new risers cut from 1/8s. It looks so much better!!!! It is still bare wood but I am going to sweep and gel stain them after I get the landings finished.
I am trying to determine how to finish the landings. I found a box of flooring at home depot in the color I want to stain the stairs so I was going to lay laminate on the top of the stairs, but I am not sure how to finish the edge. My dad suggested 1/2 round trim, or two quarter round trim pieces glued together but I am afraid it will be too ugly. The landings the builders put there are again the pasted together chunks of wood so I can't just leave them as is, plus the edge is square. That is the only place I had to pull staples- I think there were a million, give or take two. I did not take a before pic of the stairs, but suffice it to know it is the standard beige cheap carpet that turns fuzzy and grey after being walked on. Trying to vacumn the stairs made me very unhappy as a standard vacumn won't do the stairs. So I would take my Dirt Devil hand vac and use the hose with the edge attachment and do them all by hand. I am so looking forward to only having to sweep them!

Weigh In Wednesday- Much better week!

Okay, so I went by my meeting only to weigh in this week. I am happy to report 180.4!!!! Hooray. Course the tracker said I was losing weight too fast but what do you expect when your pants weigh two pounds? This time I wore exercise pants. I didn't stay for the meeting, only because I was meeting my friends at Triumph Cafe. Normally I would go ahead and eat there (I love their tuna salad) but we are kinda on a tight budget so I just brought my dinner and ate it in the car on my way to meet my friends. That way I could also know that my Tuna salad is only 3 points and theirs I would have no idea :) and I also ate Israeli salad (0 points). Yummy!
Then off to Israeli Folk Dancing! It was such an awesome class!!!!!!!! We had 10 people, where normally we only get 6 regularly. Hooray!!!!!
So next week I am hoping to go down another two pounds. I would really like to lose about 16 pounds before Kochavim- which is April 22-25th. That is approx 8 weeks from now, so I think it is doable.
I will report in next week! Shabbat Shalom Ya'll.

Craft it Tuesday- Hamsa Hanging Mobile Part 2

Okay, like I said in the Israeli Salad post, I am behind. But that is okay I am catching up.
We are going to decorate our hamsas today and hang them for display.
Supplies for decorating


rubber or acrylic stamps
stamp pads (I use Stazon but not required)
acrylic paint
spray paint
crystals
jewelry pendants
sharpies
E6000 glue (available at any craft store)
think creatively, you can use anything
Don't forget, you can also do this craft with children so think crystal shapes, stickers, markers, and glitter glue.

In the past I have used my shapes both in the plain white, and with a painted surface. I have also painted my shapes with textured paint to look like limestone and also hammered copper. And in the past I also used my chalk inks to make a background on the shapes (like a blue sky).

So for this first mobile, I have painted my shapes to look like limestone. I used Rustoleum's Textured Stone Paint.
I don't know if you can see the texture in this picture, but this is what it looks like:It is a very light- textured surface.
Allow to dry- I have found it is usually about 1 hr.
Now we will decorate. This paint texture seemed to say to me simple and beautiful.
I am using simple jewelry pendants. I found the Magen David (star of david) at Michaels in the charms and I found the round swirl pendant also at Michaels in the jewelry.
On the square shape, I paced a square jewelry pendant I bought in Israel that the pendant mechanism was broken, so I repurposed it. Place the swirl pendant on the round shape and the Magen David on the Hamsa. I glued all of these using E6000 glue. I love that stuff!!!!!!
Let your glue dry. It takes about 1 hr to dry and 24 hrs to cure. If you decorations are light- you can go ahead and start the hanging process, if not, go ahead and allow the 24 hrs as you don't want your mobile falling apart.

Supplies for preparing your hamsa for hanging.
Beading line- I think I used 5mm but I am not sure.
Beads (preferably coordinating, although eclectic is good too :) )
E6000 glue
wooden dowel (if you choose this method)
large silver bail (if you choose the wooden dowel method)
scissors
Needle nose pliers
There are several different ways you can hang these. For this mobile I used just a simple beading line loop but in a couple of the examples I am going to show you you can see that I have varied the method of hanging.

Lets get started:
Take your bottom shape and tie a long piece of beading line ( usually go with 14 inches approx) with a double knot around your hanging piece. (remember the u shape we inserted in the wet clay?).
Leave at least 2 inches of beading line as a tail. Thread a small bead onto both ends of the beading line and then feed the ends again through from the bottom to the top- we are going to use this method a bunch of times to prevent the beads for sliding around. I go ahead and add a drop of glue at this point to the bottom of the bead where it sits over the u hanging piece. Now thread another bead on, this can be a square, a round, a tear drop, any shape bead you desire. Again, I felt this was a simple feel to it so I only used small blue beads that matched the blue on the swirl pendant and one bright green square bead. I usually space the beads out 4-7 inches apart but it all depends on how long you want your finished mobile to be.
Again, you are going to loop back through, and this time go ahead and put your thread through the loop before you pull it tight (like a blanket stitch) This seems to hold it from sliding down. Do this with as many beads as you want to string together. Space them out or put them all together, this is your design, go crazy :). Now slide one more bead on, but don't tie through it yet, first tie the end of the beading line to the bottom of your next shape. Now use your tail to double loop through to secure it to the bottom of the shape, I again use a little dot of E6000 to keep it from moving. Just a little bit more security. After your glue is dry, go ahead and trim the ends of your tails to close to the beads they are tucked through.
Repeat these steps for as many shapes as you have. (I did three, one I purchased has four, it can be as many as you wish)
Now to finish off. If you are using the beading line to make a loop to hang your mobile, you will want to tie it several times (I think I did 5) and then add a drop of glue, let dry, and trim the ends. Your done! Hang it up.
Sorry , my walls are very light colored so it is hard to see but I still love it!
If you are using the wooden dowel method- I cut mine to 5 inches wide (it was a 1/4 inch dowel) And spray painted it black. I attached the large silver bail in the center and then tied the beading line to the bail and the top shape.
You will notice on this one, I rubber stamped on the bottom one, then put crystals- I think I have a close up-I went back after this and used a sharpie to fill in where ever the ink didn't cover. This is where making sure your shape is flat and even is good, if not, that is what sharpies are for, lol. I used black crystals from Jolee's (thank you Michaels again)
For the top shape I used another pendant I found on clearance.
So these two are the ones I have made but I made a bunch of these for the holidays. I decorated one with peace signs for my niece. I made one with zebra print just for fun and also I used chalk ink to make a sky on one and then stamped a tree that looks like the tree of life, and then I used silver embossing powder to make it look awesome. Since I gave it as a gift I can't show it to you, wish I had realized I was going to be doing a tutorial- maybe I will have to make another one to show you :)
I am working on another clay project- maybe we will do it next Tuesday :)

Israeli Salad

I am a little behind, but I am going to catch up today. My sister in law is visiting from California so as a tribute I am going to tell you how to make Israeli Salad. Now I am going to do a disclaimer: This is the american version- no real Israeli would use prebottled lemon juice, extra light olive oil, or lite salt. So sue me :)

There is nothing I like as much as Israeli Salad as a side dish to any meal. I serve it at every gathering I hostess and I bring it to all the potlucks I attend. I had never heard of it until I went to Ori's sister in LA. (I don't know if I mentioned it, but my husband and his family are Israeli). I attribute my love of Israeli Salad and Israeli Folk Dancing to her. She is influential to me as someone with great taste and I would love to emulate her style.
So back to Israeli Salad. This salad is the simplest I have ever made
You will need
A Cutting Board
A Sharp knife
A large bowl
chopper (optional- this can all be done by hand)
trash can close by

For the salad you need:
6 mini cucumbers (I find them in Target) or 1 english hothouse cucumber
2 bell peppers- I like the colorful ones, but the green ones are cheaper
3 or 4 Roma tomatoes
green onions- you need only one stem, but you can only find it in big bunches so you can eliminate this if you want
I like to add Israeli pickles to the mix (optional also)


For dressing you need:
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice
Salt

Lets get started:
Wash your vegetables thoroughly
Take each vegetable and dice them, discard the ends of the cucumbers and the insides of the bell peppers.

I love to use my Vidalia Chopper. It makes making this salad so much easier. I cut them to pieces small enough to set on the chopper.
Mix them all together.
If you are serving immediately go ahead and pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil, lemon juice and salt to taste over the salad and mix well and Serve
If you are preparing in advance, you can keep this in the fridge up to a day before serving and then pour the dressing over it and mix well.
Yum!

The best part is- this dish as 0 points per serving- yes! 0 points!!!!!!!!!
Optionally, you can put the tomatoes on the side if you have someone who doesn't care for them. I know, shocking that there may be people who don't like tomatoes.

Natter on Friday

My twin sister is here! Love it when she comes to visit, which is never often enough! Trish and the cousins are here and the kiddos are in 7th heaven. We took them to Chick Filet (I always spell it wrong, lol) for dinner. I was very good- did you know that 8 nuggets are only 6 points? So I am right on for my points today, hooray!
I also have been trying out a copper painting technique for our Hamsa Tutorial. It is soooooo cool. You'll see it on Tuesday. I also will try to have a recipe for Monday of Israeli Salad, mmmmm yummy!
Tomorrow Trish, some kids, and I will be going to an Art Supply store. My sister has a Yudu machine- I want one too, but it so totally is not in my budget. She made me shirts for my Israeli
Folk Dancing group which has our blog address on it. Toda Raba Trish!
What else? I know I shouldn't weigh myself all the time, but that 184 was still bugging me. So I stepped on the scale today, with clothes on: 180.4 so I feel a lot better. We'll of course see at the official weigh in but at least I am not 184, so there!
I registered for Kochavim today. Hooray, I cannot wait. It is 8 weeks away (give or take) so I should be down at least 10-15 pounds by then, and since I am trying to exercise regularly, I will be in a little better shape too. (although round is a shape :) heehee)
I will not be posting tomorrow as it is Shabbat- not that I necessarily don't get on the computer on Shabbat- but I don't want to bore you by posting each and everyday. I think 5-6 days a week is plenty.
I'll leave you for now with news of a giveaway- Fat Quarter Shop is giving away two jelly rolls in honor of Valentine's Day. You can read all about it by clicking here:

Photography Thursday- Newborn Photography Tutorial part 1

Do you ever wonder how photographers get those beautiful photographs of newborns, they call them newborn art. Here are a few examples:




These are all pictures I have shot with newborns recently. Here is what you will need:
Disclaimer: These pics for the tutorial were taken w/ my point and shoot because I was too lazy to use my SLR. You will notice they are slightly blurry as they were underexposed on this less than lovely grey day.
Supplies:
SLR camera- I use a Canon 5D- and I am not going to claim that someone with a point and shoot won't be able to do this as well- just a SLR gives you more control over your settings.
Beanbag
Boppy pillow (if you don't have one of these- use a rolled up towel or blanket)
Backdrop stand (or use two chairs or tape your background to the wall, whatever works, right?)
Backdrops- I highly recommend 3-4 backdrops. Babies when naked will often surprise you :)
I use fleece for my black background and blankets for light colors. It is all the rage now to use textured blankets, especially the bobble throw. Be creative, I have seen people use curtains, sheets, shower curtains, and comforters.
Puppy piddle pads (wonderful under your backdrop to catch those little surprises so it doesn't get on your beanbag or boppy)
Space Heater- babies love it warm, especially if you are going to get them undressed.
Accessories (hats, tutus, other prop kinda things)
PATIENCE- #1 necessary tool you are going to need.

This is the note I always send the parents before the session: (or some variation, it is never the same)
Newborn sessions should ideally take place in the first 11 days of life, this makes them more likely to sleep and more flexible to posing. However don't stress if it doesn't happen. Please turn the temperature up in your home by one or two degrees, at least 1 hr before I arrive. I suggest feeding baby 30 min-1 hr beforehand as well. Loosen baby's diaper so that we don't have red crease marks. What to expect: Your session will last 2-4 hrs in length. Ideally baby will be asleep, but if not I love open eye pictures too. Be patient, and don't worry about me. This is all about baby, so if baby wants to eat, or have a cuddle, that is just fine. I don't want you to feel like you need to hurry baby's eating so we can get back to taking pics. And don't stress if baby poops or pees on the backdrop- or your hands. It won't be the first or last time. Daddies tend to be impatient with the whole process so if you want pictures of baby w/ daddy, we should either do those first or last.

So lets get started:
Setting up the baby nest
I use natural light whenever possible. I try to find the biggest window available and place my backdrop at a 45 degree angle whenever I can. Place your beanbag in front of your backdrop (but not on top of, because your backdrop is going over the beanbag). Place the boppy pillow (or rolled up towel) on top of the beanbag. Which direction you turn the boppy pillow depends on the type of shot you are going for. If you want baby's head on hands then turn the curve of the boppy forward, if you want back wrinkles (so cute!) then turn it with the open part of the boppy toward you. (see pics below)
Put your backdrop over the boppy/beanbag combo, smooth out the wrinkles in the background as well as over the boppy. If you don't do this step you will have to do some major cloning of the background in my final pic. If you are going to use the piddle pad, you will want to put this in place before putting the backdrop over it.
Make a little indention into the center of the boppy. This is your "nest"
At this point, I turn on the heater on low and ask mommy to undress baby to his/her diaper. I settle baby into the nest, face up and put a blanket over baby. Let baby settle. In my experience babies are usually asleep when put down, so while baby is settling, I will test the light, set my white balance, and exposure. Take a couple of test shots, and chimp for all your worth :) It is better than a underexposed or overexposed mess when you get home. If you check your histogram, you can see if you are blowing out in any specific areas.
Begin your shoot by removing the blanket and shooting a few pictures of baby facing up- this is usually a profile shot (you should be sitting or squatting at baby's level. Be careful of your angle- you do not want to shoot up the nose, not an attractive pictures! Turn baby on his/her side and let settle. Shoot a few more and then slowly take baby's diaper off. Allow to settle (are you sensing a theme?) This is why you need the heater. Babies this young cannot regulate their own temperatures. The heater will keep them nice and comfortable. I keep a running dialogue with the baby, it seems to soothe them, at least it has worked for me. We discuss about keeping boy or girl bits covered with their feet, and I will cross their ankles, usually over the specified bits. At this point you can slowly and carefully turn baby onto his/her tummy. I will start out with their legs curled underneath them and then sometimes straighten them a little to bring their toes up by their chin (see below)
This pose should not be done with babies who are older than 2 weeks as they are less flexible.
Next, I usually try to get some variation of baby's head on hands or arms pose:This is an ideal time to get out your hats. They are all the rage now, and really emphasize how small baby is. I love the square hats with the tassels on the corners, and the helmets.
At this point, right after the chin on hand pics, my babies usually wake up. This is a challenging pose for them, and for you to get them in because they don't have the ability to hold their head up. I am extremely slow and careful about putting their hands in position, and making sure their head is supported so they don't tumble sideways. If you are concerned or the parents are, don't try it. Like I said though, they usually wake up about this time. This is a great time for baby snack and cuddle time, and for you to check your pictures and make sure that your lighting is looking okay. It is also a good time to change out backdrops or move on to your next move, whether it might be on a large piece of furniture that showcases how small baby is:Or setting up a basket to put them in. The tall twig basket from Hobby Lobby has been very popular with the long fringe blankets. I never could find either the throw or the basket so I don't have any of those in the repetoire.
Did I already mention back wrinkle shots and how cute they are? Check them out:

In Part two, we are going to examine loving contact: newborns with their parents shots. I showed a peek at a connection when showing the pic of baby in daddy's hands (above) but I want to take a closer look so you can start to develop the skill.
Linked to:

Weigh In Wednesday- My pants weigh two pounds!

Okay, so I went for my first official Weight Watcher's meeting. I have been using the e-tools for a week so I figured my weight was at the very least down, if not even more down than where I started. So I stepped on the scale after divesting myself of my jacket and shoes. 184 pounds ! What? I weighed myself at home and I was 181.2. Now I understand scale difference, but 3 pounds? I was in shock. So after dance I weighed myself at home, without my pants- 181.2. I put on my jeans again- 183.4. That is a difference of 2.2 pounds my friends! My jeans weigh two pounds!!!!!!!!!!!! Who knew.
Oh, how I hated to enter 184 in the e-tools but I want my tools to reflect the same weight they will get at the meeting. So I get the little pop up about how I gained weight this week- but not to be discouraged and I wanted to shout at it, that my pants gained the weight, not me, lol. So from now on my weight will be on par with the meeting scales.
I really like the leader of the group- when I joined Weight Watchers at Work 1 1/2 yrs ago, I did not like the leader, she sounded so condescending and her voice was just like Denise Austin's (did I mention her baby sweet voice and how annoying it is?) Speaking of baby, there was a Mommy in the meeting who brought her son- I am guessing 6-9 mo- and he was so sweet. He was flirting with me. There was one other newbie, well she was trying it out as a free meeting. She was asking do you have to eat all your points value? Now, normally you get people asking about using the 35 extra points, but she said she wasn't sure she could eat all of her allotted points. What? I would say she was about my size so her points would have been 24 like mine. Obviously the way she was already eating is not working for her. What does she mean she can't eat all 24 points? Whatever.
Ok, so tomorrow with be Photography Tutorial Thursday (liking the new titles?) I just thought it might be something fun to change it up.

Craft it Tuesday- Hamsa Hanging Mobile Part 1

We are going to make a Hamsa Hanging Mobile. Hamsas are house blessings. They are found in a multitude of cultures. The word comes from Hamesh (or similar in Arabic) and means 5- as in the number of fingers on your hand- which is why they frequently look like a hand. I love Hamsas and their meanings. I have them hanging all around the house but found that they might not match my decor- plus I couldn't find more hanging ones like the one on the left in the picture below. So I made my own, and then made a bunch for Holiday gifts. They are perfect for my first tutorial- plus, just so you know- you can do this project with kids- instead of the air dry clay- try it with Crayola Model Magic. I did that for my son's Hanukkah party for his friends. They loved it! But this tutorial is for you, my fellow crafters!
You need to start this project with your supplies:
Supplies:
DAS Air Dry Clay (white)
Hamsa Cookie Cutters (you can buy them online, or sometimes in your local bake shop)
Other Cookie cutter shapes- I used circle and square.
Parchment Paper

Tools:
wire cutters
needle nose pliers
20 gauge beading wire
bowl of water (not pictured, oops)
rolling pin, or some kind of flat round object (I sometimes use wine bottles if they are handy)
eye pins, the smallest you can find

Lets get started!

DAS clay is my favorite Air Dry clay- it is pretty easy to use. I bought some in Israel- but then I found it in Michaels so I was very happy! This is what the package will look like:
I buy the white, it also comes is Terra Cotta.
Tear off a chunk of it, and put it on a sheet of parchment paper.
and put the remainder of the clay in a gallon sized Ziploc and seal it so it doesn't lose moisture. Knead the clay until it is soft and malleable. Kneading warms it up and allows you to roll it out.
Once soft, roll it out flat to about 3/8- 1/2 inch thinkness- try to keep it as smooth and even as possible, but don't stress over it. This is the fun, and messy part :)

Once flat and rolled out, use your cookie cutters to cut out your shapes, much like cookie dough, you can gather the clay back up, knead it, and roll it flat to cut more shapes.
You will notice, that it will tear a little bit on the bottom of your shape, kind of look like mulberry paper tears.
Okay, nobody notice that I didn't keep it flat and even, or maybe I should claim the camera distorted it, yeah, that sounds good. So take your bowl of water, dip your finger in it and run it around the edge, smoothing out the "tears" and smoothing the clay. Lay on another sheet of parchment/wax paper to dry.
Cut your remaining shapes and also lay them to dry. Now, take your wire and wire cutters and cut 3/4" to 1" pieces and use your needle nose pliers to curve them into a u shape. Dip the U into water and then insert into the top of your shape and then bottom of your pieces. If you know it is going to be the bottom shape, only insert the U into the top of the piece. (if you miss these steps they can be done later with a drill, eye screw, and E6000 glue). Press slightly on your shape, or use a brayer, to smooth over your hanging piece and make sure the clay wraps around it.

If you have left over clay, you can either tuck them back in the bag or cut more shapes, why not?
Some ideas for shapes to cut- alphabets? Kids favorite shapes (airplanes, teddy bears, flowers, etc), have fun!
Now, here are some tips about drying: you will notice this clay takes a while to dry. As it is drying, it will get white around the edges and still be grey in the middle. I usually turn them over when they have about 1/2 inch of white around the edges. I keep flipping them until they are completely dry. If you have young munchkins like mine- you might want to put these on a cookie sheet and put them out of their reach. Curious hands, or curious if they are cookies, means not so much fun for you.
We will continue this tutorial next week (it takes about 24 hrs for the clay to dry). I will leave you with the words of the house blessing:

the pit of dispair and then saved!

My one week trial of the WW online tools expired. And I thought for sure my husband wasn't going to allow me to get a Monthly Pass so I could go to Meetings and track online so I was moping around. Then I found out they take Paypal- and I happened to have some photography payment money in Paypal that I hadn't withdrawn yet. Hooray. So I was back, and all before I was desperately tempted to give up dieting and just go back to my unhealthy ways. Saved, in the nick of time.
My first meeting will be tomorrow- but I couldn't resist weighing yesterday afternoon on my scale at home. I was down to 181.4! That is almost five pounds! I know it won't all be that easy but I am so happy. Of course I can't tell at all the difference but I feel different, or maybe it is because I am eating healthier!
It was a close call yesterday. I had a photo shoot at 3 yesterday- a newborn. So I ate a pretty filling lunch and headed out for the shoot. By the time I was done, I was starving! And thirsty- she offered me a drink, but you know I was almost done so I figured I would just stop at Sonic on my way home. Well, here I was starving and I stopped at McDonalds for a diet coke, and I really eyed the hamburger, I was thinking "it will tide me over til I get home" but then I stopped myself by saying- almost 5 pounds. Think what a difference. So I just got my diet coke and sped away as fast as I safely could. Go me!
I also learned how to change my turn signal yesterday thanks to the automotive store guy. I hate it when my lights go out, I live in fear of getting stopped or of someone rear ending me if I don't have my signal on.
Today I am sore. I always am after a photo shoot. While I am shooting, I totally get into it, squatting, twisting, bending, and scrunching. I don't even think about it, anything to get the right angle and composition. And the next day I pay for it. My darling husband alway suggests a nice relaxing hot bath, mostly so he can join me after the water cools down, but never mind his ulterior motives, it usually works and I feel better.
Now that I rambled on let me tell you my plot and plan for the blog.
I really want to start posting regularly and I want to make it interesting, and not just weightloss, but my crafts, photography, and home decor (which is currently non-existant, but needs to change) efforts. I am afraid these posts may be a hodge podge of information until I develop a method. This may evolve as I go along. Thanks for letting me natter on!

Good times at the Melting Pot

I went out with two friends that I only see every few months- and one of them I hadn't seen in 1 1/2 years. We had a great time, we went to the Melting Pot. I had already eaten but enjoyed the company. We laughed and laughed and laughed! I should get activity points for all the laughing!
I had never been to the Melting Pot. It was really nice and it is a good thing I had already eaten because Sheri told me that the first time she went there- her meal, with everything was 96 points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG my daily points are only 24 so that would be 4 days worth of points!
So we got to telling jokes :)

What happens when you throw a green rock into the Red Sea?





It gets wet. hahahahaha

Our waiter was so funny. And I learned things about Sheri I didn't know- Oh, I already knew she had a wicked sense of humor- but I didn't know when she retires she wants to be a deck hand on a fishing boat, and that she loves to Shark Fish and has been shark diving in Africa.

It was so nice to see Carrie! I miss her. I met these ladies at CKU in Dallas and then we all went to CKU Chicago together. Good times. And it is the kind of friendship that we just pickup where we left off. The only person missing is Cenee! We miss you Cenee!

Hats, Tutus, and Tigers Oh MY!

Okay, no tigers (sorry to get your hopes up). Besides weight loss, what have I been up to? Well, I mentioned to a friend that I give a hat for all the babies that I do their newborn session, but that I was running low. Since she crochet's I offered her $8 dollar hats, thinking she would make a few and I would order more later..... she showed up with 11 hats! That is right, 11. And they were so cute!!!!!!!!!! Here are the fruits of her labors:And also I have a newborn girl session on Sunday, and while blogstalking Peekaboo Photography, I saw a beautiful baby girl in a tutu. I had to have it, but with no time to order one, decided to make one. I made a beautiful pink one, with pink polkadot ribbon, and because it was so easy decided to make more than one- I ended up with seven!!!!!!!!! See below:
If you have never made a no sew tutu- I can give you a tutorial- but since now one reads my blog, I won't post it unless you post that you want it.

Another day done- and a review

So I did my abs workout yesterday so I wanted to do a cardio workout today. Since I quickly decided Denise Austen's very annoying baby voice in her Body Burn Dance and Pilates video was just too much to bear- let alone the fact that she doesn't explain how to do any of the steps- I went back to Walmart today to buy Dance the Inches Away Hip Hop Dance video! Love it. LOVE IT. It reminds me a lot of Body Jam. And there is a seperate section to explain the dance moves you may not get- so watch it first and then do the workout. My only annoying thing was that my son kept interrupting me- to the point that he was trying to turn on a video on the tv close to where I was rocking it with Jennifer G. Now, I don't consider myself a natural dancer, especially since I have put on weight so I know I didn't get all the moves exactly right- but I am sure I will do this one again. Note to self though: wear dance sneakers- my tennis shoes where gripping the floor just when I didn't need them to. I have Jazz Dance Sneakers from Capezio that I use for my Israeli Folk Dancing so they should help when I do this one next.
So I am right on for my points this week- have only used 1 of my extra 35 weekly points- which I may or may not take. Since it is my first week- I dont know that I should and I am not required to take them anyway. I probably should eat a few extra to make up for my activity points though, maybe? Not sure. I really need to go to a meeting next week- but since they are 12 dollars individually- I was kinda hoping the money I am expecting will come in.
I am not concerned about the diet portion - I seem to be handling it pretty well this week- and I have worked out a deal with my dear darling beloved hubby that if I do my exercise every day- he will do his (30 minutes on the exercycle). Go honey!
TTYSoon

The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

There might even be a tutorial on how to slice bread for that matter.
Have you guys heard about DIY Dish- if not watch this 1 minute introduction video and then click on the DIY Dish button on the right. If you haven't heard yet- DIY Dish is a spin off of You Can Make This.com and will have all kinds of video tutorials on how to make and do things. I can't wait to see what is in store! And you can Win either a Janome Embroidery Machine or a Janome Sewing Machine!

Down 1.4 in 4 days

Okay, it is day 4 and I weighed in today because I set my weigh in day on WWOnline to be Tuesdays. Tuesday's are my alone evening, and I also go dance for 2 hrs. I wasn't sure how to list the activity so I said it was 40 min of Moderate, 20 min of High, and 1 hr of low intensity. Works out to 8 activity points, but that seems high to me. I love Israeli Folk Dancing!!!!! I think I mentioned this ages and ages ago.
Yay for having made it this far. It is 10:54pm with is way past my bed time so I am going to bed- especially since Aba Le Arba :) is teaching a Europe class this week so he is having to get up in 3 hrs to get ready and drive to the office to start teaching at 3am. Which means I have to get up extra early so I can do my 8 minutes in the morning exercises before rounding up the horde and getting them dressed to take Itai to school. But we will get through it. It is just for 2 more days.