Category: The Blog

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Cross Stitch SAL Update

Okay, so this was supposed to be a “Wed WIP” but Wed got away from me.  I forgot that I had to actually…you know…TAKE PICTURES to make this post.  Then I couldn’t find the iron.

So here’s the 35-ct Mermaid Blue linen and light blue mystery mini spool from HDF:

It’s hard to tell in these photos, but there’s a lovely mix of soft blue and even a hint of light green in the silk thread.  (Pictures were taken on my iPhone.)

To make sure the dark material wouldn’t drive me nuts, I decided to try a small Ink Circles freebie:

Here’s Part 1 of the Mystery SAL completed!

 

And here’s a wider shot so you can see more of the fabric. I decided not to try and finish all the border yet to avoid making mistakes that I’ll have to frog later.

 

 

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RBW Week 7

Romance Biggest Winner

So much for hitting the big 5-0. 

Ugh, my first gain, -.97%.  No, it wasn’t “deserved” either.  I’ve eaten within my Weight Watchers points every single day, even though I had a few Doritos (a serving, carefully counted and allotted) and two tiny cheesecake bites over the weekend.  My PMS cravings were killing me, but I stayed in my daily point range.

It sucks to be UP when I’ve been on plan all week, but my body has a mind of its own.  I can only do what I can do, and the scale has been up for two days in a row.  I know next week will be better.  I’m doing all the right things.  Eventually it’ll show on the scale.

Last night I made what’s quickly becoming a family favorite:  Lasagna from the WW Just 5 cookbook.  I use at least 90% lean ground beef, lots of organic Bertoli pasta sauce (our favorite), fat free or part skim ricotta (depending on what I can find), fat free cottage cheese, and part-skim mozarella.  I also use the old-style “boil” lasagna noodles.  Maybe it’s all in my head, but they seem to cook up so much better (and taste better) than the no-boil kind, so they’re worth a little extra time.

I had a 5-lb pack of 90% lean ground beef in the fridge from our Sam’s Club run this weekend, so I browned up the entire pack.  I made two dishes of lasagna, one for dinner and a smaller one for lunches and leftovers, while the rest of the hamburger browned in my iron skillet for tacos tonight.

Kid approved and deliciously slim!

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Good News Monday

The BEST news:  the monsters are headed back to school today!!  Of course, they don’t think this is such great news….

I also finished edits to Vicki (YOURS TO TAKE) this weekend and got them shipped back to my editor.  Wheeee!

I finished a ton of prep work for back to school, including organizing my generic “bill box” catch all of school papers, tests, homework, bills, to-be-filled items, etc. into a small hanging file basket.  Each kid has two folders, one for immediate work and the other for reference (the class handbook, master spelling lists, etc.)  I also prepped my erase-board calendar with PE and library days, weekly spelling tests, etc.  Then I scrambled an 18-ct pack of eggs while That Man fried up a huge pack of bacon and we made a pile of breakfast burritos to stick in the freezer.  (Breakfast is really hard each day because they get tired of their choices after a day or two.)

I loaded two more sci-fi or exotic themed website banners this weekend featuring a “blue painted lady.” 

I ordered RTCs for Golden using Soleil’s gorgeous artwork!  I can’t wait to start mailing them out.

This week, my to-do list is pretty steep.  I have a ton of blog posts and prepwork to finish for Golden’s release at the end of the month.  Plus I’d like to get started on The Bloodgate Warrior edits.  Not to mention new words on the zombie category and Phantom.  If I don’t get these projects going, Vicki will be pretty lonely on the 2012 schedule…

What’s your good news?

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iStitch Mystery SAL

I’m going to be starting a new cross stitch project shortly, and because it’s something new for me, I thought I’d share my progress here every week or so.

SAL = Stitch A Long.  In this case, it’s a mystery SAL – we’ve only been given a glimpse of what the finished project will look like.  There are 8 pieces, and we don’t get the NEXT piece until we finish the current one and send a picture to the designer.  Currently, there are 125 people signed up to participate, and we’ll all be stitching at the same time.  Pretty cool, huh?

What’s even more cool: each project will look very different, depending on fabric and choice of colors. I was thinking about my project tonight, and it both amused and irritated me.  It’s so reflective of my writing journey and personal struggles.

First, I want to do something different, that no one else will do.  Even though we’re all doing the same pattern.

I went through all my stash, reviewing my linen and silks, looking for unusual elements that interested me.  I found a large piece of Mermaid Blue 35 ct. linen I bought from HDF last year.  I love the subtle mottling, but it’s soooo dark.  If you’ve never worked on dark linen before, it can be really hard to find the threads.  Accidentally get off by one thread, and it can look really terrible.

But the designer’s piece is stitched in a nice blue silk, so I kept coming back to the Mermaid Blue linen — sort of an “opposite” idea with blue as the main background.  I have a mystery spool of soft light blue silk that would look gorgeous against the darker linen. It’d definitely be a challenge, and Lord knows I loooove a good challenge.  Sigh.

The first part of the pattern doesn’t come out until Sat. so I decided to do a little test stitching on that dark linen first to make sure I wouldn’t end up pulling my hair out.  I have a little freebie from Ink Circles that I ought to be able to finish in a day or two, and I’m using the mystery spool to make sure it stands out well on the dark linen.  So far, it looks nice like I hoped, but it is difficult to skip around too much — I just can’t see the threads.  These old eyes just aren’t what they used to be. 

I’ll wait until I get the first part of the pattern on Sat. and decide.  If there are lots of skips that I’m going to have to count very carefully, I’ll probably go back to my second choice, some nice Cream 40ct. linen with Paua Abalone silk from HDF.

I’m tentatively planning on posting about my stitching progress on Wednesday, similar to Nicole’s WiP Weds.

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RBW Week 6

Romance Biggest Winner

So far for this challenge, I’ve lost a total of 10.4 pounds, which puts my average loss at 2 pounds per week.  A little higher than my WW average (since Jan) of 1.3 pounds per week.  Pneumonia in July is all I can say.  I don’t expect these numbers going forward!

I am, however, at 41% of my goal I set for the whole six months.  Awesome!  Every pound going forward will be a challenge, so I’m glad I have a headstart.  (My goal is to lose just slightly over 1 lb/week.)

Food wise, I’m still pretty boring.  e.g. I haven’t tried any new recipes since last week.  I’m eating nonfat Greek yogurt daily to get as many probiotics as possible to counteract the heavy-duty antibiotics I’ve been on, and they’re doing their job.  With fresh peaches/nectarines in season…and a little Kashi Go Lean Almond Crunch (only 1/2 c. because it’s expensive in points, 1 c = 5 pts) sprinkled on top, YUM!  And a great source of protein too.

My oldest has been informally doing WW with me (as her doctor recommended), and one of the easiest things she does to keep her weight going down is to take her lunch to school everyday.  Even with all the new healthy guidelines they keep pushing down our throats, if she eats the school lunch, she’s guaranteed to slowly start gaining again.  Since school starts next week, I invested in some nicer cold lunch boxes for all three monsters so they can all take their lunch if they want.  (Middle is VERY picky about her sandwich and believes it “tastes bad” if it’s even the slightest bit warmer than ice cold.  She typically will only take PBJ as a result.  I hope these new “PackIt” bags work!)

Any ideas for interesting healthy kid lunches?  Because the whole sandwich thing gets old pretty fast…

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Good News Monday

As of this morning, I’ve lost 49.8 pounds this year!  Darn it, was really hoping to hit the big 5-0 but I’ll take it!

There are two new website headers up for your enjoyment.  They’re set to change randomly as you cycle through pages.  Thank you Dawn at BookGraphics for these latest additions!  She’s also working on a “blue lady” one that should be pretty cool/interesting.

I’m having FUN with the Zombie Category Romance.  Sometimes it’s nice to just have fun and relax.  Not that I didn’t work to plot and develop this story, because I did.  It’s just one of those fun brain teaser sort of stories that made me grin when I think about it.

I have a lot to finish by the end of August, which is already making me a little twitchy.  Several blog visits, the Carina Press stuff for Golden’s release at the end of the month, Romance Trading Cards to get printed, Victor’s print release to prep for next month….  Somehow it’ll all get done.  I hope.

Any good news to share?

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My Greatest Weakness

…A Challenge.

Man, do I love a good challenge.

If someone tells me, “You can’t do that!”  then I immediately want to prove them wrong.  Or if someone says, “Hey, that’d be really cool – I wish someone would do that.”  I immediately want to be the first to pull it off.

Which is how I found myself writing my first “zombie romance” years ago.  (See “Broken Angel:  A Zombie Love Story” in the Bump in the Night anthology.)

When you follow interesting people online, say Angela James on Twitter, you can hear some incredible ideas that simply make your head explode.  Challenge!

The other day she was talking about zombies, and how much fun it would be to combine them with a Category Romance.  She might as well have hooked me up to our overloaded power grid (we’ve set record temps well over 100 degrees three days in a row). 

Soooo many zombies began eating my brains it’s not even funny.

I love zombies.  I’ve been wanting to write a Presents for years.  (I’ve got a notebook started but haven’t been able to get the right unique approach yet.)

Yesterday, I not only plotted my first zombie category romance (ZCR), but I also wrote the synopsis for it.  It’s hilarious.  It’s wonderful.  I think I have a way to write a zombie that isn’t disgusting for a romance — and I explained why my heroine is and must remain a virgin.  My hero is a perfect alphahole, but for a reason.  However, my heroine is no doormat.

In fact, she tricks him into signing a contract with a clause (that she added) without even reading it.  How? 

Death by Chocolate Cake.

Mmmmm.  Does it every time.

I think while I’m working on revisions for Vicki and Tecun this month, I will be writing ZCR for fun.  I don’t want to jinx myself, but this could be one of those stories I write in a few weeks simply because it’s that. much. fun!

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RBW Week 5

I’m inching closer to 50 lbs lost this year with another -1.2 today.  More and more people are noticing and commenting, which makes me grin from ear to ear.  I’m feeling really good (well, in spite of pneumonia!), but I can’t wait to get to my next goal (not my final goal weight which is still a ways to go).

Right after I had our first monster (who will be 13 in Jan), I did WW at work and lost to the lowest I can remember in many years.  Right after that, we made a major move to another state, I started working from home full time, and we had two more monsters.  I tried all sorts of fad/craze diets and would lose 40-45 pounds, but I couldn’t get past that milestone before I realized I couldn’t live that way forever.

I never made it back to that low weight.

I’ve already passed that 40-45 lb milestone on WW and I know I can live this way.  Although I admit to getting a little anxious when I lose another daily point (lost another one today! ack!).  I rarely eat ALL my points anyway, at least on a daily basis.  About 1-2 times per week I eat the full points and go over a little into my weeklies, typically Friday or Saturday.  But in general, I eat less than I’m allowed (although I always try to get my healthy guidelines in–and I do splurge occasionally), so I don’t know why it freaks me out a little. 

I guess I’m worried that when I do finally get to goal that I won’t have anything left to eat.  Irrational I know.

So much of weight loss is a mind game.  I mean, in theory, all I have to do is eat less and move more.  In time, the weight will come off.  In reality, though, there are all sorts of stressors and mind games I play with myself.  Losing a point is only one of them.  Worrying about how far I still have to go is another.  That stress I start to put on myself — worrying about how long, when, how will I do this — can lead to overeating and general laziness (because I get depressed).

It’s the same with writing a book, though.  I always get to a point when I start to doubt whether I can actually pull off another book, even though I’ve written more than 10 now.  I have to concentrate on the journey, one day at a time, and keep my mind in the game.  FOCUS. 

I can do this.  I can.  And I will.

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Good News Monday

  • I’m on another 7 days of antibiotics to kick the end of pneumonia.  I am feeling better – just want to make sure I don’t have a relapse.
  • Found out last night that Littlest Monster was starting to get pneumonia after being sick all week with the virus that did me in.  Luckily we knew exactly what to watch for and got her in immediately before she could get as sick as I did.  She’s on antibiotics and will hopefully be much better in a few days.
  • The majority of my school shopping for the monsters is done!  I’m broke now, sigh, but we even got the clothes shopping mostly done.  I need a few more small things over the next few months as it cools down but they’re in good shape.  Two more weeks!!!
  • That Man starts a new full time job today.  It’s been a tough 9 months on the job front for him so it’s a relief to get him back full time.  He’s also keeping his part-time job at Sears with more reduced hours (love their employee discount).
  • I made good progress on Vicki revisions last week and I’m down to the last change — a new chapter with just Elias and Jesse.
  • Seeing another modest but decent loss on the scale so far — hoping for good news for tomorrow’s Romance Biggest Winner weigh in!

What’s your good news today?