Category: The Blog

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The Mad Stitcher

I’ve had a bit of ADHD lately with my projects.  I’ve been working on four at a time.  :oops:

Here’s the next part of the mystery sal completed:

I also started two projects.  First, Northern Expressions Needlework’s Antique Lace band sampler:

This is stitched on ruby wine linen with HDF’s examplar white chocolate silk.  Since I had to order quite a large piece of linen to get the right length, I had plenty (after I cut it in half) to use the other piece for the Coat of Arms SAL.

This one is using “Obsidian” silk from The Silk Mill.  It’s gorgeous, shiny filament silk — but as slippery as snot.  I quickly learned to use much shorter lengths than usual (for this linen count, I have to use two strands to get the coverage I like).  I feel more worn out after wrestling with the slippery silks, so I might regret my decision to use it on such a large project.  But it’s absolutely gorgeous…

I’m not sure what other colors I’ll be using in the CoA yet.  I want blacks or dark grays that look good on the deep red.  I’ve placed another order from Carrie’s Threads, and as soon as The Silk Mill is shipping again (they’re moving and won’t ship until after 10/1), I’ll order more shades of black.  I’m tentatively thinking that I’ll do each row of the sampler in a different shade of black.  That’ll allow me to explore a bit.

My other project is a small kit with lots of beads that That Man talked me into the other day.  I don’t have pictures of it yet but I’ll snag one the next time I work on it.

 

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RBW Week 11

If I were only looking at the scale, this would be a disappointing week because it’s showing a gain.

However, I know that I worked the plan all week.  I’ve been eating as healthy as usual.  But the biggest victory came this past weekend when I jogged with Princess Monster.  Again!  Not only did I not die — but I also jogged for quarter of a mile – straight!  Then I jogged another half a lap after that.

I wasn’t as sore, either.  Now, I just need to work on more REGULAR exercise.

My “new” food this week has been large salads for lunch.  I’ve always loved salad, but more as a side than the main dish.  Now I’m measuring out 2-3 oz of roast beef or ham, adding a BabyBell mini cheese, or even a hardboiled egg, for lots of protein, topped with my homemade honey dijon dressing made with olive oil and basalmic.  I have a nice huge plate of greens mixed with cucumbers, carrots, and tomatoes.  Yum!

Plus it always makes me giggle because I call it a “Hugh Jass” salad.  On the WW forums, they censor certain words, so people call it that instead of huge ASS.  Then my brain leaps on to Hugh Jackman…

And I’m very happy to eat my salad. :mrgreen:  Hoping for a better weigh in next week!

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Good News Monday

Remember that short story I was working on, Ritual Ink?  I’m so pleased to announce that it was selected as one of the 32 finalists for All Romance E-books’ Just One Bite paranormal contest!  Details will be coming soon.

I posted more reviews for Golden last week.  Thank you to everyone who takes the time to rate or post reviews on GoodReads, Amazon, etc. 

I have print copies of Hurt Me So Good getting ready to go out in the mail, along with some cool pens from Earthly Charms.  While I have ARCs on hand — if you’re a reviewer and you’d like a signed copy, please drop me an email (joelysueburkhart AT gmail DOT com) and I’ll send a promo package to you.

My friend Diana Castle has released her first self-pubbed title, Under His Hands, a steamy western erotic romance.  I’m reading my copy now and wheeew boy, she writes smoking hot, delicious stories as usual!

What’s your good news today?

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Golden Winner and Review

I used the pick giveaway plugin to select the winner for the HautTote giveaway:  Stephanie Christine!  Thank you to everyone for entering!  Stephanie, I’ll email details to you (the tote hasn’t shipped to me yet).

There’s also another great review for Golden by Night Owl Romances by Elf. 4.5 stars and a Top Pick!

An evocative and well-written story that vividly conjures up the intricacies of court intrigue and machinations even as it relays the tale of two people tied together in their desire for the sexual stimulation achieved through the delivery and reception of pain.  Looking forward to more works from this author, a wonderfully adept word-artist.

Thank you so much!

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Victor’s Now In Print!

HURT ME SO GOOD is now available in print!  To celebrate, I’m giving away a signed copy here on the blog.  Anyone can enter, even if you’ve won something from me before, and I’ll ship anywhere in the world. 

To enter:  I’m preparing to work on the next Connagher book.  Mal isn’t exactly a “Connagher” but she’s been friends with Victor for so long that he counts her as family.  You’l meet her love interest briefly in Vicki’s book — YOURS TO TAKE, coming May 2012 — and he has a few tattoos that I need to learn more about. 

What kind of tattoos do you find sexy?  Comment on this post as many times as you want and I’ll draw one winner using the “Pick Giveaway Winner” plugin.

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RBW Week 10

Romance Biggest Winner: down .65% this week and a new number on the scale that I haven’t seen in a loooooooong time.

Did you see that our team (Double Ds, Team 2) won last week? Woot! Hoping for good results this week too.

Last night I hinted on Twitter that I was very sore. So sore I didn’t know if I’d be able to get out of bed this morning. I actually feel a lot better today than I thought. Whew. But what made me so sore, you ask?

Princess Monster has been training in PE to build up to running 2 miles this year. On their track, she has to do 6 laps (1.5 miles) and jog/run half a lap, walk, repeat — twice a week. She asked if we’d take her up to practice yesterday because she was losing a day and didn’t want to get behind. We said absolutely – we’ll all go.

So up we went to the Jr. High track. We started walking, while she did her half mile jog, then walk. Pretty soon I could tell that she wasn’t really “into” it. She didn’t have her coach there yelling at her, or her friends to laugh with. It was hard to make herself run when it wasn’t really part of her grade. She wanted to quit and just walk.

So I said I’d jog the last two with her.

*dies laughing*

Me, jog? I mean, I’ve never successfully jogged. NEVER. Even when I was young and healthy I hated it. My knee hurt in high school. I quit track after my first disastrous meet. HATED it. Plus, hello, I’m old and overweight and haven’t jogged in twenty+ years — I could keel over anytime.

But I had a sudden burst of insanity and decided to try. I told her not to pace herself with me — she’s already taller than me and has an incredible stride. I’ve got a “trot trot trot” sort of pace, which makes me snort just saying “pace” because again, I don’t jog, haven’t jogged, why am I even contemplating this?!?!

But I did it. I jogged half the lap, just like she did. Yeah, I was way behind, but because I was doing it with her, she went ahead and did her lap. I listened hard to my body — afraid I’d just break apart right there on the track! My shins did hurt a little but nothing alarming, and my knee held up okay. I had to walk the entire lap in between to recover, but then we jogged the last half lap too, and it was actually easier on my body. I was breathing like a freight train at the end, but I did it.

My tally: I jogged .25 miles (in two separate laps) and walked a total of 1.25 miles.

Of course now she wants me to go up with her all the time.

*dies* I’ve created a monster! Who wants to torture me with jogging!

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Holiday Laziness

Happy Labor Day to all my US friends!  I hope you’re enjoying this last long summer weekend!  I have to admit it feels more like fall here today – FINALLY.  The temps have been high 90s again this past week, but this afternoon it’s a balmy 70 and was actually a little chilly last night. 

We’ve spent our long weekend on a horror movie binge.  Well, cheesy “animal” horror movies, not slasher types (too much for the monsters).  The best one we’ve watched so far is Black Water, a crocodile horror tale with only some bad language.  We also watched The Reef and Deep Blue Sea last night.  I really want to watch Snake Island but I don’t know if That Man wil make it through the movie — he hates snakes! 

While watching all these cheesy movies, we’ve been stitching.  WE!  It’s so cool.  My two youngest monsters decided they wanted to stitch too, so I let them pick out some materials from my old stash (Aida, DMC).  They’re just free-handing embroidery-style stitches, making shapes, etc.  They’ve been at it all weekend and their projects are looking really cute.

I’m still waiting on my new supplies to arrive for my next projects, and the next part of the mystery SAL hasn’t been released yet…so I pulled out an old project, Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow.  I finally finished the first block yesterday — pictures coming on Wed.  I also got a good start on the next block.

Papa from Mexico (my Dad) came down yesterday and we celebrated his birthday by taking him out to eat and treating him to some coffee from a new place we found:  Classic Rock Coffee.  I love their blend names:  Back in Black, Atomic Punk…  And the coffee is quite tasty too.  They roast it right there in house and then make some of the best mochas and lattes I’ve had since Caribou (in MN — we don’t have one here). 

Despite all this laziness and yummy coffee, the scale is at a new low this morning.  Hoping to still be there tomorrow for weigh in!

Have a happy Labor Day!

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Giveaways Around the Blogosphere

If you’re interested in winning a copy of Curse of the Golden Flower and my latest release, Golden, stop by the Carina Press blog and tell me about a movie or book obsession.

I’m also at EverybodyNeedsALittleRomance today talking about all those famous movie/story endings that leave me going ARGH!!!  (Clue:  Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.)  Stop by for another chance to win Golden!

Lastly, I’m at JoJo’s Book Corner blog bash talking about hair tribulations — remember our long search for Gregar?  Another chance to win Golden!  (And see a drool-worthy picture of Rhaekhar aka Tecun aka the hunk standing by the pyramid in one of my blog headers.)

Of course the HautTote giveaway is still running here too!

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Cross Stitch WiP Wednesday

I was excited to receive the next part of the Mystery SAL! Here it is all stitched up:

 

Since I’m having so much fun with this one, I decided to sign up for another SAL.  This one isn’t a mystery at all (you can see the glorious red band sampler if you go to the group’s homepage linked above).  The only problem is picking the materials.  I had one piece of 40ct. linen that was long enough, but it had a yellowish cast to it that I didn’t really like for this.  You KNOW I’m going to use at least red silks, maybe black too….so yellowish linen just won’t work.

So of course it was time to do a little shopping.  :lol:

I ordered some Weeks Dye Works 40ct. linen because I’ve heard great things about it.  I went with the basic “linen” color.  Now if I can just settle on which silks to use…

Decisions, decisions!  I have to hurry up and decide, though, because several pages have already been released.

I also have supplies coming for another glorious red project:  Antique Lace Band Sampler designed by Northern Expressions Needlework.  I’ll have to learn some speciality stitches for this one, and it has both beads and ribbons!  Definitely a challenge, but I can’t wait.  It’s just too pretty.

I can’t wait for all these goodies to arrive!

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RBW: 5-0 Edition

Don’t forget the HautTotes giveaway!

Romance Biggest Winner

This last week I hit a significant milestone.  Since Jan. 5th, I’ve lost 50 pounds!

I’ve been on a lot of diets in my time, but I’ve never lost 50.  40, even 45, but I always gave up for some reason or another before I hit 50. 

I’m not giving up this time.

I think what’s different this time is that commitment I talked about earlier.  I’m not “interested” in losing weight — I’m committed.  Even if that means the scale is not cooperative.  I’ve battled 3 extra pounds off and on for the past two weeks.  It’s weird, but one day I’ll be up, and the next, I’ll be down the entire amount.  The next day, up .5 or 1 pound, then back.  It’s like my body isn’t sure about this new place and is fighting just a little.

What’s different this time around, too, is I’m taking a more realistic approach to dieting.  It’s not an “all or nothing” battle for me any more.  Weight Watchers allows for and even encourages occasional treats with weekly points above and beyond the daily points.  I typically eat well within my daily points, but hardly ever dip much into the weeklies.  Until I want to eat at Mythos, say…

And I can do that without guilt, because I have the points.  In the overall scheme of weeks and months and years of living healthier, a planned splurge isn’t going to kill me.

I do still get a little anxious about losing daily points, but I’m working on it.  It’s a good thing to eat less as I go, because my body doesn’t need that much fuel any longer.  I think as I get lower, I’ll be more dependent on dipping into weekly points, which might mean even slower losses, but that’s okay.  This isn’t a race.  I just have to stick the course.

I’ve had to buy new smaller bras and I found a stash of brand-new underwear (still with the tag) stuck in a drawer that fit now.  Yay!  I’m wearing jeans just about every day, when I owned only one pair before I started this journey.  And those jeans are getting big enough I have to wear a belt to keep the waist from gaping open.

The road is long and hard at times, and I’m never going to “get there.”  The journey will go on forever.  I’m always going to have to be mindful of what I eat.  So I might as well enjoy the scenery and plant flowers as I go.

This week:  .81% lost!