San Diego, here I come!

 (photo from www.vroomvroomvroom.com)

Lately, my posts have been infrequent at best.  I wish I had some new art to show you but I've been spending what little spare time I have sorting things to give away...  You see, I've decided to move back to San Diego this summer!

I am super excited to be going back - I miss all my friends so much and I will even be returning to my old job.  My bosses and coworkers in San Diego are awesome people and dear friends so it's going to be really nice to get to work with them again.

In the meantime, I am trying to pare down all my stuff to the bare minimum.  I'm getting rid of all my "big" clothes - so I won't even be tempted to let any of those old pounds climb back on!  Lots of extra shoes, videos, old computer equipment, linens, craft supplies, and most of my furniture.  I still have tons to do and I know the next two months will fly by - I'm planning to move over Memorial Day Weekend at the end of May.

The most important thing still to do is find an apartment! For those of you who are in the area, let me know if you've got any good leads  =)

Secret Valentine Birdie

I'm just barely finishing up all the Christmas candies and treats and now the stores are full of tempting valentine sweetness! Makes it very hard to stick to my healthy eating goals...

In our Paper Traders group, we are having a secret valentine swap and this is the front of the card I made:
I made the background by tearing pieces of vintage text and music and layering them with some Perfect Paper Adhesive (love this stuff!). Then I covered it all with a layer of flower-printed tissue paper and added some rub-ons from EK Success. The little birdie was a pre-made embellishment from Prima but I made the lacy heart myself.

This background technique is my favorite - I've used it on several projects - it's super easy and always turns out so pretty!

A Boxful of Books

Yesterday, the family cookbooks arrived from the publisher - just in time for our family reunion this coming weekend! Mom and I spent MONTHS typing and editing the recipes from my late grandmother's recipe box. The end result is lovely and well worth the effort.

The shipment came in 3 boxes, each weighing about 35 pounds. As I was carrying each individual box up the three flights of stairs to my apartment and struggling under the weight of them, I realized that this was approximately how much weight I have lost this year (33 pounds as of last week). What a shock!

Postscript: Thanks to my home teacher for carrying up the third and final box for me!

Ten Percent

So, a big congratulations to... ME! Today, I reached my initial weight loss goal of 10%! Doctors say that losing 10% of your body weight has the following health benefits:

• a healthier heart
• lower cholesterol
• reduced blood pressure
• lower risk of Type 2 diabetes
• more energy

Thank you, Weight Watchers!

Weighing In

Those of you who know me personally are probably aware that I joined Weight Watchers this summer at the advice of my doctor. I had been averaging a loss of about a pound a week for the first twelve weeks... and then I started gaining it back =( Over the past two weeks I gained back 3 pounds and I was feeling very depressed about it because I thought I was doing a pretty good job of following the plan.

It was with some trepidation that I went to my Thursday weigh-in tonight... and was pleasantly surprised to find that I had lost the three pounds I had gained - Yea!! So it's just a reminder to myself (and anyone else who is struggling like me) that persistence pays off. I'm sure I'll hit another plateau at some point along the way but I will just have to keep pushing through =)