It's Friday - Water Party Diet!

How did Friday get here so fast? Wow, can't believe I haven't posted here since Monday, but there's not been that much going on to post about. All I've done this week is go to the gym and housework (oh and knitting!).

So here we are, week 2 of Liz's Water Party Diet. I have been trying to drink lots of water, but not actually drinking 3 glasses with my meals like Liz does. Still, I'm happy to report that after counting my WW points this week and getting to the gym 3 times, I have lost 1lb :-) 

I wanted to share with you a recipe I tried this week. Cheryl made it up and it's a quick and easy Black Bean and Corn Salsa! I tried this last week when she made it, and oh my, it was so good I had to make a batch for myself. I've been using it all week, sprinkled on my salad, or just as a side with grilled chicken. It is fresh and delicious.

The recipe is simple: One can of black beans (rinsed) 2 fresh corn on the cob grilled, half a cup of red onion, 3 roma tomatoes diced, and hand full of cilantro chopped, juice from one lime and a tablespoon of vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar). Just grill your corn then cut off the cob, mix it with all the other ingredients and you have a fresh and tasty salsa. This is great with tortilla scoops, but I've not been eating those this week. The points for it is very low. I got six servings out of this (about 3/4cup each) and calculated the points at about 1 (but don't quote me on that!!). ;-)

Also this week I've been having this every afternoon  . . .

I love this Tazo Passion tea. I was drinking it last year as iced tea (and buying one from Starbucks every chance I got!). The lemongrass flavor is really refreshing, and the fruity passionfruit and hibiscus flavors are just YUMMY. I don't really drink tea (you know, the English kind with milk), I've never really liked the taste, but I've been trying fruit teas for a while now. This is my favorite by far. I did try the Tazo Orange spice one this week, but it's not as good as the Passion. I've got a whole box of it now though, so I'll have to alternate and drink it sometimes!

And finally, here's a 2pt dessert I made this week for after my dinner . . . .

Instead of just having a WW yogurt, sugar free jello and fruit, I made it look all pretty like this - after all, we do eat with our eyes! ;-)  There's half a banana, 2 strawberries and a few blackberries in this. I actually couldn't get it all in the glass, and I couldn't eat it all in one sitting either! I ate half as an afteroon snack, then finished the rest off just after dinner. I added a squirt of cream on top just for show, but Kristen got that spoonful :-)

Have a great weekend everyone. I'm headed off to the gym, then it's Indian food tonight and date on the sofa with hubby, catching up with all the tv shows we've missed this week!

Lucky Me!

Well, considering this year got off to a rough start for me what with allergies and just not feeling 100%, it looks like January is turning out to be a great month :-) I recently won a giveaway over at Stephanie's La Dolce Vita blog, when she was celebrating 3 years of blogging! My prize arrived just before last weekend . . .

Stephanie had chosen a few books in different categories (house, cooking, photography) and the winner got to pick which one they wanted. I already had the Pioneer Woman cook book that Stephanie had chosen, so I picked this sweet home book 'The Perfectly Imperfect Home'.

 It's filled with water colored pictures that I just love. I haven't had a minute to sit and read it yet, but I certainly will find the time this week. I would think this book will sit on my bedside table for a while too, so I can browse it at bed time ;-)

Thank you again Stephanie, and here's to many more years of blogging for you. If you haven't visited Stephanie's blog before HOP ON OVER and say hi. Her photography skills are amazing.

And if that wasn't lucky enough, I also learned last week that I'd won another giveaway on a knitting blog :-) I'm waiting for my package which is being shipped from the UK. I'll post about it when it arrives. Speaking of knitting, it's taking up all my spare time at the minute, I just LOVE IT.  I knit this hat last week for Kristen, it only took me a day!

Isn't it cute :-) I just love it, and I learned something new this week - I don't mind knitting fairisle!!! I always thought I hated it cos it was too messy twisting the yarns, but you don't actually have to. It knit up much faster than I thought it would because of that. 

 The pattern calls for bulky yarn, but I didn't have any. I decided to use a different yarn but knit the larger adult size, giving me a 'young girl' size when it was finished :-) The yarn is 100% wool from Hobby Lobby.

I'm just thrilled with how this turned out, I am thinking of buying the bulky yarn and knitting one that will fit me. There is also a pattern for matching mittens that I might make us. Sad thing is we probably won't get to wear any of these til next winter. The weather here in TX has been positively Spring like this week!!!

Back to WW!

 

Liz over at Savvy Seasons has been posting this past week about her 'water diet' progress! I'd never heard of the water diet until she mentioned it. The concept is that you drink a glass of water before, during and after EVERY meal. So far Liz has lost 13lb!  To keep herself motivated she has decided to host a 'Water Diet Party' each week where we can all join in and post not just about diets, but healthier living in general. This is the perfect party for me to join each week as I like all the motivation I can get when it comes to living a healthier lifestyle. And as most of you know, that's what I've been striving to do these past few years or so.

Like most things though, I'm not consistent, and I find myself once again in January with a few extra 'Christmas' pounds to lose, and needing to get back to a regular exercise schedule. It didn't help that for the first 2 or 3 weeks of this month I've felt under the weather with really bad allergies. But I feel like I'm finally turning that corner.

I still found myself eating all the wrong things though after Christmas and on Monday I got on the scale to see I'd gained yet another 2lb - a total of nearly 7lb since early December! That was it, I decided to join Weight Watchers online again! 

 

So, although I'm not following Liz's water diet, I am trying to drink more water, and I've discovered that it's much easier to do when I fill an 8oz glass every hour and drink it. I mark down in my notebook too when I've finished the glass, and I seem to easily be getting in those 8 glasses every day. 

It will be good to join in the party every week and give an update about how I'm doing. Right now my goal is to get these extra 10lbs off and get to the gym at least 4 times per week. I'm often told I don't look like I need to lose weight, but really, who wants to WAIT until they look like they need to lose weight before doing so? Not me, I like to nip things in the bud. I know myself when my jeans feel tight or I feel bloated from eating too many salty snacks, that is when I take action - not when someone says "you look like you've gained a few pound"!!!!!

This week has been good, I am counting my points on the WW plan and still enjoying all the foods I like. This has been my breakfast a few days this week . . .

A taste of home! Heinz baked beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, egg, bacon and toast :-)

For Nenna!

I was talking to my sister last week and mentioned the chair Kristen bought with her Christmas and Birthday money the family sent her. I put a picture on Facebook when she bought it just after Christmas but didn't post pictures here, so these are for you Nenna :-)

Kristen fell in love with this when we were out shopping just after Christmas. She used all of her birthday and Christmas money to just buy the chair! I had to buy the cushion for her, which I said was a little extra Christmas gift from me ;-) She wanted to sleep in it the first day she got it, but she didn't! She sits in this every day though to play her wii games.

Papasan Chair from Pier 1 Imports!

What Lies Beneath!

Hi guys, hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was uneventful (and rather lazy) which I didn't mind at all. I am feeling much better, but sometimes my head still feels kinda dizzy and light, I'm assuming from the sinus pressure still?! Not much I can do about it, so I'm trying to just ignore it and do the best I can.

I had to share this with you all . . . remember this:

Hmm, actually, now that I think about it, I'm not even sure I shared it with you? This is a cauliflower plant that I put in the garden back in September, when the weather started cooling down! I don't even think I've taken any more pictures of it since then . . . until this week that is.

This is how it looked over the weekend! It's huge and it's been huge for some weeks now. We've had wind and rain and frost, and this thing was looking pretty pathetic, as you can see (and yes, those are weeds in our lovely crushed granite paths that need dealing with!)

 A couple of weeks ago I went out there to see if anything was happening under all those sorry looking leaves, and I was pleasantly surprised, because I think I saw a 'white head' starting to grow! So, this past weekend I went out there again wondering how things had been developing, and look what I found . . . 

  

  Is there anyone home?

Yes! Lil ole me is home!!

I was AMAZED, look at this thing, he's so pretty :-)  I can't believe I just planted a tiny little thing a few months ago, left it all alone out there and he grew! Now that's the kind of gardening I like!

Now, what to make with him? How about cauliflower cheese! I decided to make some cheese sauce, and what better recipe to follow than the wonderful PW's, and while I'm at it why not make her delicious mac and cheese too!  So, that's exactly what I did on Saturday . . . .

 I've made PW's mac and cheese recipe before, you can find it online HERE. I just boiled the cauliflower and added some of the cheese sauce to it then put it under the broiler (grill) to brown. I took the photo before I browned it though, and boy does there seem a lot of cheese on top of it!

I must say it doesn't look very appetizing here, but it was yummy! Certainly not something I'll be eating again any time soon though. I've started back on Weight Watchers today! More about that next time.

Eating Right!

Hi everyone, is it Friday yet? These 6am mornings are not fun at all, I feel so tired still, where is the energy I had just before Christmas? Hopefully it will return soon.
 

At the start of a new year I always like to focus on good health and eating right. I honestly can't say that I'm doing that too much yet. There is still a load of 'junk' (by which I mean delicious chocolate) laying around here that I can't seem to stop eating! And I am in the terrible habit of snacking after dinner on cheese and crackers (there's no chips in the house, we've eaten them all and I refuse to buy more!). I am trying to eat right and have been buying fruit like crazy. One main reason is that Kristen is eating it now too. She would rarely eat fruit, watermelon during the summer and that was about it, hardly ever an apple, sometimes a strawberry here and there, but this past week she's been eating the berries I've bought, and the cherries. Since last weekend I've been to the store 3 times to stock up on more fruit. This was my latest purchase yesterday. . . . 

 Blueberries were a great price this week, only $1.98 per tub, the raspberries were nearly $5 for the same size! No raspberries for us this week ;-) Those oranges you see are delicious, I forgot the name of them, honey somethings? Only $4.98 for the whole tray! And they are so juicy and sweet, I eat like 3 or 4 a day!

I was trying to play with the 'Bokeh' on my camera, getting the front of the oranges in focus with the back of the picture blurred!

I know I've mentioned this magazine before. . .

There are some yummy recipes in this month. Cheryl made a yummy chicken soup with sweet potatoes this week, she gave me some to try. 

 It was really very tasty, also had kale and mushrooms in it.

I'm thinking of making this for dinner tonight, but using chicken instead. Kristen likes couscous and broccoli so I may just put everything on her plate separately but I'll do mine like this with the oranges.  And I will try and NOT snack on the cheese after dinner. Perhaps a greek yogurt and fruit will be my dessert :-)

Are you eating healthy? Or are you still nibbling on the Christmas Candy like me? !!

The fog is lifting. . .

Hi everyone,

I can't believe we're already in to the 10th day of this new year and I'm only just starting to feel somewhat 'normal'. I've hardly done anything since I packed the Christmas decor away (ok, truth be told it's STILL not all put away, some boxes are still in the dining room!), so I've hardly got anything to blog about ;-) 

I finally got in touch with my ENT (Ears, Nose Throat specialist) office yesterday, hoping to get an appointment to see my Dr but he is booked solid this week til Friday morning! No kidding, I'm sure I'm not the only one around here suffering badly with all these allergies. Thankfully they were able to call in a prescription to my local pharmacy and I went yesterday to pick it up. Can I tell you I'm already feeling SO much better this morning. SO MUCH better that I actually went up to the gym with Cheryl at 8.30am!  My hearing is still a bit 'fluffy', feels like theirs cotton wool stuck in my left ear, but it's not as bad as yesterday so I know it's improving every hour. 

I'm still not doing much around the house, other than laundry, dishes, knitting and reading ;-)  So I have no pictures to share. But I can't have a post without pictures (I sometimes do, but it's rare!), so here's one final Christmas photo (or two), I found these pics on my other camera and forgot I'd taken them. Remember the pretty candy cane vase I made . . . 

 The week of Christmas I bought some lovely red carnations to put in it - they lasted all the way through new year too :-) Sadly last week I threw the vase away! The can was all rusty from the water and there's no way this would last a whole year in the garage with the other decor, I would think the candy canes would melt once it got over 100 in there during the summer. It was a cheap make, just $2 for a box of canes, soI'm sure I would do another one next year.

 You can see more of Jason's Christmas windmill in this picture. We've always wanted one of these and I found one a couple of years ago on Ebay.

And with all my talk of knitting, if you're wondering what's on my needles at the minute, it's this. . . . 

It's called the Dahlia Cardigan. Mine is in a light blue. I've knit most of it and am working on the first sleeve at the minute. I'll be sure to share photos once I am wearing it :-)

Down Time, and a review!

I've not done much this week, not much at all. I thought I was getting better from these allergies, but they've just eased off a little, not totally gone! And they're still draining me, I still have headaches daily, still stuffed up, still coughing, I have hardly any energy at all -what's a girl to do?  Well, I could knit or I could read . . . . Or, I could do BOTH :-)  And of course that's exactly what I have been doing, knitting and reading - two of my favorite things!

A few months ago I was contacted by a local writer! Jeremy came across my blog then emailed me to ask if I would be interested in reviewing a book he was soon to have published. I wasn't sure whether I would or not at first, I'm not really that good at writing reviews, I either like a book or I don't, or I think it was just ok! But I thought about it and finally said yes, I'd read the book and review it for him. I thought at the time the book was a novel, but it's actually a collection of short stories.  To be honest I've never really read short stories other than a few from 'Chicken Soup for the Soul'!  

A passionate December love affair.
The meeting of an unexpected traveler.
The consequences of protecting a young new acquaintance.
A journey into an unknown past.

In the stories of While I’m Still Myself, Jeremy Lane eloquently describes the life changing impact of the brief encounter, showing that life and love are not shaped by an entire lifetime, but by the fleeting moments with unexpected people in unexpected places.

I've really enjoyed reading these short stories, I'd like to read more. "A Brief Encounter"! It makes me think about the reasons people come in to our lives, some for a reason, some for a season. I would think it must be hard to write a short story knowing you have to develop the characters quickly so as to captivate your audience - just my opinion, because I really know nothing about writing stories - but isn't that what we like about the novels we enjoy, getting to know and like (or dislike) the characters involved. I think Jeremy has done a great job with these stories, the characters were warm and very likable, I like his style of writing. I can see myself reading more of his stories on my Ipad at bedtime. You get a nice sense of accomplishment when you read something from beginning to end, just before you turn out the light :-)  I don't want to say anything about the actual stories themselves, for fear I would give too much away. I will say I think my favorite story was 'The Guest' :-)

While I'm Still Myself is due for release on January 10th. You can also check out some of Jeremy's other books on his website JeremyMarkLane.com They're available on Kindle, Nook and other devices!

 

My thanks to Jeremy for the opportunity to review his book.  

Set Backs!

I was hoping to accomplish so much this week, most especially getting the Christmas decorations put away, and after that I wanted to make a start on 'prettying' up the house!  I love January for that 'fresh start' feeling, I'm always ready with great intentions of decluttering, cleaning out cubboards and closets, organizing my 'stuff'. Surfing around blogland AND Pinterest really gets me motivated - but am I doing any of this? NO!!!

Instead I'm feeling lousy, feeling run down, feeling like I have no energy whatsoever, and to be honest it is BUGGING THE LIFE OUT OF ME!! I hate when I don't feel 100%. Just two days ago I felt great, ready to get back to the gym (I went and worked out for 75 minutes with Cheryl), ready to start eating healthy again, planning menus and grocery shopping for all that yummy fresh stuff I love. And today, I can hardly pack a few baubles away without having to take a rest on the sofa! It's no fun I tell you. I do feel better than I did yesterday, but still, I just don't feel like I have enough energy to do all the things I want to do - hence the reason I'm sitting here at my computer desk for a rest, after putting more of the upstairs Christmas stuff away.

One day at a time . . .  isnt' that what they say. I'll just do a little, one day at a time.

So, did you notice my new header? I changed out the background from Christmas to 'every day', and I added a photo to the header, that was taken a few years ago when we first moved to Texas. This was part of the view from the house we had built. Kristen was only 3 yrs old at the time - I thought I'd share with you the 'front' of that picture that Jason took that day.Why? Because I haven't taken any new pictures this week . . .

and  . . . because I LIKE it :-)

OK, so rest over, I guess I should go try to do something else around the house. All of the Christmas stuff is packed away, I'm happy to say, but it's still sitting in the hallway waiting to go in to the garage. Once I get a little cleared up I am thinking of taking photos of around here and adding a 'Home Tour' to my blog! Don't hold your breath though, it could take a while. Have a great day, I hope you're feeling 100%, and if you're not, I hope you get better soon.

Cedar Fever?!!

I can't believe I'm sick again :-(  but I think this time it is just allergies. Cedar Fever has started in Austin, for those who don't know about it it's when the Cedar trees here start to pollenate.

From December through February, many people experience an itchy, runny nose, sneezing, nasal blockage, excess tearing and itchy eyes. Others complain of itching of the palate, throat, or ears, and postnasal drainage. Some have fatigue, mild headache, facial discomfort, sore throat, partial loss of sense of smell, and sensation of ear plugging. If you experience the above symptoms every year during these months, the chance is great that you have Mountain Cedar allergy.

I have ALL of those symptoms :-(

I hardly slept last night, my throat was so sore. My nose and head are stuffy, I'm congested again and just feel really run down. I hope it's short lived. Kristen usually suffers a lot with cedar allergies but so far she seems ok this season, although she did mention her throat was a little sore this morning too!  

I didn't get to the gym yesterday because I wanted to get a lot of the Christmas stuff put away and now today I will probably have to skip going because I just feel so crappy! And I still haven't finished putting all the decorations away. It seems never ending! I will be trying to do that today despite how yucky I feel.

A couple of weeks ago I bought two new Santas at Kohl's but I didn't get to show them to you, here they are (before they get put away for another year). . .

  

Of course they were on sale :-) Originally $43 each, with a whopping 70% off!!!! I'll do the math for you, that was just over $13 each!!!

A New Love!

It's my least favorite day of the year! The day I start taking down the Christmas decorations. Not because I'm sad or anything, I'm like many of you, ready to put it all away and freshen things up for the New Year - I just hate doing it!! But it has to be done! I did the living room today, but I didn't make a start until after 11am when I got back from the gym. Tomorrow I will pack away the rest.

I've been surfing around blogland a lot these past few days, and I love seeing everyone's 'favorite decor posts' from 2011. Many of you are already starting new craft projects for around the home! I find it very inspiring. I haven't done much crafting for a while now (other than knitting Christmas gifts, which took a lot of time throughout last year, but I didn't mind doing at all). One of the things I'm loving as I surf around is  . . . . BURLAP!!!  Yes, you read right, I am falling in love with burlap ;-)  I bought a burlap table runner last year from Etsy. I love it, it's so versatile and goes with just about any theme I want.

I loved it in the Fall . . . 

 I loved it at Christmas!

I definitely want to buy some soon and make something myself, although what, I just don't know yet. I've been getting some great ideas from Pinterest though . . . 

 napkin rings to match the table runner!

 or simply use it to wrap a gift!

 I would love to incorporate it in to my Christmas decor next year!

 and I'm thinking of sewing some stockings for decoration or to use as a gift holder?

 I love how this table is decorated!

 and another gift package I thought was lovely. Monogrammed too, how cute is that!

What about you - what are you LOVING right now?

Happy New Year!

It's here - 2012! I hope you all had a wonderful night last night, however you chose to celebrate. We went next door to our friends Cheryl and Steve for their 'annual bash', this year it was a 70's theme. I have a ton of photos, I just posted them to Facebook and posting them here for my Sis and anyone else that doesn't check Facebook :-)

 

 

So, I'm ready to start the new year, with a lazy day on the couch!!! What are you doing ;-)