Thursday, April 12, 2018
My own domain!
Just a little note. I bought a domain so I can be a little more professional with this blog! You can still find me at stringsaway.blogspot.com, but you can also now find me at strings-away.com! Yay!
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
What's Up Wednesday
Happy Wednesday, everyone! I'm in such a great mood today! It's only 9:30am and I already have my to-do list half done, wooo, go me! I hope you're having as good a day as I am.
So yesterday I promised to talk about what's been going on with me since I went on my break a few weeks ago. The simple answer? Lots! Lots of really good things thankfully.
First, if you're living in the northeastern of the USA like I am, you know how crazy the weather has been. We had an amazing warm spell in February where it was in the 50s or 60s for weeks, whereas it's usually in the 20s or 30s. That totally confused my poor snowdrops.
They came out and started to bloom. And THEN we got literally a foot of very wet, very heavy, very compact snow dumped on us. I thought these poor guys wouldn't make it. That snow FINALLY melted in the end of March, and believe it or not, the snowdrops are just fine. However, it's been so cold since then! In the 20s and 30s. This is what it looked like on Monday!
There's still a little snow left on the ground today, but thank goodness it's going to start warming up today. It's going to be 45 today, then in the 60s tomorrow, and then nearly 70 on Friday! Awesome! I'm so looking forward to it. So are my spring bulbs! They've literally been up for almost two months and haven't had a chance to bloom. I can't wait to see how pretty they are this year :)
I've also been pretty crafty lately. I made a decision early this year to stop buying more fabric and try to use up what I already have. It's a very practical resolution because I'm literally out of space to put new fabric. This is it. I HAVE to use it.
This is most of my fabric:
Those are my fat quarters...
That's my filing cabinet where I hang my yardage...
And there's two more filing boxes full of hanging yardage! And these pictures don't even include my steamer trunk full of batting or my huge plastic tote full of backing fabric, not to mention the wooden chest full of clothing fabric! Oh my...
Thankfully, I have lots of ideas of things I want to make. I even got a couple of projects done while I was gone, too! I made some pillows for our couch that match the quilt that I leave on the back of it.
They go nicely with the country colors I have going on in my front room. I really like them! As a bonus, I stuffed them with shredded foam I had left over from another project. I hate it when pillows filled with fiber filling get all smooshed and there's nothing you can do to fluff them back up. The cool thing about shredded foam is that you can always refluff them. It's very practical!
I also made a wall hanging to put in my hubby's bedroom (yep, we sleep in separate rooms -- essentially our house is really old and it's too small to take a large bed up the stairs, let alone find a place for it in the bedrooms). It was fun to make. It was actually the first time I tried freezer paper piecing, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I'll be sure to take another picture once it's hung up in his room.
As for plastic canvas, if you read yesterday's post, I'm sure you'll remember seeing my progress on my latest pattern.
My Aerogarden is doing surprisingly well. Usually after about two months, I get kind of tired of taking care of it and generally dump it before it's done. I've really stuck with it this year though! It's given me so much lettuce, it's probably paid for itself. The little display says it's been running for109 days! That's nearly four months!
I'm guessing the reason I've been taking care of it and kept it going for so long is because, yes, I've been on a diet since the end of February. This is kind of a sensitive subject for me. I've been on diets before... ok, not very many diets, bet some. I'm 33 and I can count on one hand the number of serious diets I've done in my life. I'm really good at dieting, too. Every time I diet, I lose about 30 pounds. However, as I'm sure you can guess, I'm really good at putting the weight back on.
I decided to make a serious change this time though. I'm trying to teach myself that I have to be careful for my whole life, clearly, if I want the weight to stay off. But I want to be honest here too. I'm less concerned about the weight than I am with how I feel. I was so severely depressed this winter that I literally thought it was too difficult to continue living (I wasn't suicidal, I just thought it would be so much easier to be dead. Trust me, there's a difference). I knew I needed to change my diet, because experience has proved to me that your eating habits affect so much of your life.
I went back onto my low carb paleo diet, and within two weeks, my mood has improved by so much! I have so much energy, and my mood is so great! I'm almost a totally new person. I have lost about 10 pounds since the end of February, which is'n much but I'm ok with that. I have 40 pounds to go to be where I want to be, and my goal is to be there by Christmas of this year, but I know I can get there before then. This diet is so easy to follow because I'm never hungry, and after a few weeks, the cravings for junk food pretty much go away. I'm exercising every day in ways that I love (walking, biking, and hopefully soon I can do gardening). And generally, I'm just feeling awesome. I have been on this diet before, but I frequently forget how great I feel when I'm sticking with it. Some food-centered holiday comes up and there I go, right back to the junk food. Well not this year!
I even managed to stick to my guns on Easter, which I'm sure you all know is chocolate fest. I made some low carb foods to take to my mom's house so I could eat dinner with everyone else, and passed up on all the carby foods at the table. Then when hubby's mom gave us a huge container full of chocolate, I had a small indulgence and then gave the rest to my nephews. I can do this.
I'm probably going to report my diet progress on this blog too, just to keep myself accountable. I'll try not to go into a lot of detail because this isn't a diet blog (I have one of those that I don't use anymore), but I'd like to at least say, hey, I did good today!
Well, I guess that's all for today. I still have a fairly long to-do list today and I'd like to get it all done early today so I have time for a long leisurely walk in the sunshine! Have a great week, everyone!
So yesterday I promised to talk about what's been going on with me since I went on my break a few weeks ago. The simple answer? Lots! Lots of really good things thankfully.
First, if you're living in the northeastern of the USA like I am, you know how crazy the weather has been. We had an amazing warm spell in February where it was in the 50s or 60s for weeks, whereas it's usually in the 20s or 30s. That totally confused my poor snowdrops.
They came out and started to bloom. And THEN we got literally a foot of very wet, very heavy, very compact snow dumped on us. I thought these poor guys wouldn't make it. That snow FINALLY melted in the end of March, and believe it or not, the snowdrops are just fine. However, it's been so cold since then! In the 20s and 30s. This is what it looked like on Monday!
There's still a little snow left on the ground today, but thank goodness it's going to start warming up today. It's going to be 45 today, then in the 60s tomorrow, and then nearly 70 on Friday! Awesome! I'm so looking forward to it. So are my spring bulbs! They've literally been up for almost two months and haven't had a chance to bloom. I can't wait to see how pretty they are this year :)
I've also been pretty crafty lately. I made a decision early this year to stop buying more fabric and try to use up what I already have. It's a very practical resolution because I'm literally out of space to put new fabric. This is it. I HAVE to use it.
This is most of my fabric:
Thankfully, I have lots of ideas of things I want to make. I even got a couple of projects done while I was gone, too! I made some pillows for our couch that match the quilt that I leave on the back of it.
I also made a wall hanging to put in my hubby's bedroom (yep, we sleep in separate rooms -- essentially our house is really old and it's too small to take a large bed up the stairs, let alone find a place for it in the bedrooms). It was fun to make. It was actually the first time I tried freezer paper piecing, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I'll be sure to take another picture once it's hung up in his room.
My Aerogarden is doing surprisingly well. Usually after about two months, I get kind of tired of taking care of it and generally dump it before it's done. I've really stuck with it this year though! It's given me so much lettuce, it's probably paid for itself. The little display says it's been running for109 days! That's nearly four months!
I'm guessing the reason I've been taking care of it and kept it going for so long is because, yes, I've been on a diet since the end of February. This is kind of a sensitive subject for me. I've been on diets before... ok, not very many diets, bet some. I'm 33 and I can count on one hand the number of serious diets I've done in my life. I'm really good at dieting, too. Every time I diet, I lose about 30 pounds. However, as I'm sure you can guess, I'm really good at putting the weight back on.
I decided to make a serious change this time though. I'm trying to teach myself that I have to be careful for my whole life, clearly, if I want the weight to stay off. But I want to be honest here too. I'm less concerned about the weight than I am with how I feel. I was so severely depressed this winter that I literally thought it was too difficult to continue living (I wasn't suicidal, I just thought it would be so much easier to be dead. Trust me, there's a difference). I knew I needed to change my diet, because experience has proved to me that your eating habits affect so much of your life.
I went back onto my low carb paleo diet, and within two weeks, my mood has improved by so much! I have so much energy, and my mood is so great! I'm almost a totally new person. I have lost about 10 pounds since the end of February, which is'n much but I'm ok with that. I have 40 pounds to go to be where I want to be, and my goal is to be there by Christmas of this year, but I know I can get there before then. This diet is so easy to follow because I'm never hungry, and after a few weeks, the cravings for junk food pretty much go away. I'm exercising every day in ways that I love (walking, biking, and hopefully soon I can do gardening). And generally, I'm just feeling awesome. I have been on this diet before, but I frequently forget how great I feel when I'm sticking with it. Some food-centered holiday comes up and there I go, right back to the junk food. Well not this year!
I even managed to stick to my guns on Easter, which I'm sure you all know is chocolate fest. I made some low carb foods to take to my mom's house so I could eat dinner with everyone else, and passed up on all the carby foods at the table. Then when hubby's mom gave us a huge container full of chocolate, I had a small indulgence and then gave the rest to my nephews. I can do this.
I'm probably going to report my diet progress on this blog too, just to keep myself accountable. I'll try not to go into a lot of detail because this isn't a diet blog (I have one of those that I don't use anymore), but I'd like to at least say, hey, I did good today!
Well, I guess that's all for today. I still have a fairly long to-do list today and I'd like to get it all done early today so I have time for a long leisurely walk in the sunshine! Have a great week, everyone!
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Tuesday Progress
Happy Tuesday, everyone! Are you having a good week so far? I certainly am. It feels really nice to get back into the swing of designing and crafting again, although I have to say it's hard for me to keep focused when I'm out of my routine. The way I would like my day to go is to eat breakfast with my husband, do my daily meditating and writing until 9am, then work on my designing and blogging until noon, eat lunch, and then do my house cleaning and such until about 4pm when I start making dinner.
Well of course that doesn't always happen. We don't have children, but we do help with my elderly parents and that can sometimes feel like being a parent. My mom called and asked me to help her go shopping this morning. She has a bad hip and back, and has a hard time walking around the three miles of Walmart to get everything on her list. Afterwards, she wanted to go get coffee so we could catch up. I'm glad I went. I'm so grateful that I'm able to help her and to spend time with her still and that we're so close. Yes, my morning got messed up because I was out until 10am, but I can't let that stop me from doing the work that needs to be done.
So once I got home, I got back to work on my fall design! It's coming along. I'm just starting to get the pieces finished off and soon I'll be able to glue it all together.
I like it. I think it's a cool rustic piece that will fit in my home pretty well. I'm going for a kind of country rustic design in our home. We have several barn stars in the living room, and we have one on our front porch too! I think they're really cool.
Tomorrow I plan on posting more about how my life's been going since I took a break, so I'll see you then! I need to go get my lunch made and then I'm off to get the house chores done. Have a great day!
Well of course that doesn't always happen. We don't have children, but we do help with my elderly parents and that can sometimes feel like being a parent. My mom called and asked me to help her go shopping this morning. She has a bad hip and back, and has a hard time walking around the three miles of Walmart to get everything on her list. Afterwards, she wanted to go get coffee so we could catch up. I'm glad I went. I'm so grateful that I'm able to help her and to spend time with her still and that we're so close. Yes, my morning got messed up because I was out until 10am, but I can't let that stop me from doing the work that needs to be done.
So once I got home, I got back to work on my fall design! It's coming along. I'm just starting to get the pieces finished off and soon I'll be able to glue it all together.
I like it. I think it's a cool rustic piece that will fit in my home pretty well. I'm going for a kind of country rustic design in our home. We have several barn stars in the living room, and we have one on our front porch too! I think they're really cool.
Tomorrow I plan on posting more about how my life's been going since I took a break, so I'll see you then! I need to go get my lunch made and then I'm off to get the house chores done. Have a great day!
Monday, April 9, 2018
Refreshed and Ready to Go!
Hi everyone, happy Monday! Did you all have a good weekend? Mine was really good, except for the fact that it was 30 degrees and snowing! Now I live in a cold area, but that's ridiculous even for us. Usually this time of year it's in the 50s and I'm getting my garden ready for planting. I saw yesterday that Home Depot was having their mulch and other garden things on sale, and my first thought was that their sale was WAY too early! But then I realized, this is when they usually have their sale! It's just that it's so unusually cold and yucky this year :( But the good news is that after today the weather is going to start warming up to a more normal temp! I'm very excited.
Well, it's been several weeks that I've been on hiatus, and I realized yesterday that I'm so ready to get back to designing and blogging again. It was very nice to have some time off to focus on myself and my home and family, I won't deny that. I got my house back in order, I spent some time doing fun things with my husband, I did a bunch of sewing, and I'm well on my way on my diet too. But I realized this weekend that I was starting to get bored, and although I like a peaceful slow paced life, I don't think anyone likes a boring life. It's time to start being creative again!
I might change things up here at the blog. I don't think I'm going to post a free pattern every week like I used to, because that's very demanding. First of all, coming up with a new pattern every week is hard enough, but that's on top of making my paid patterns too. I think instead, I'm going to make free patterns when an idea strikes my fancy, rather than trying to force it. I'm always open to requests, by the way, so if you have any good ideas, just send them my way and I'll see what I can do!
I'm going to start writing more about my life and my creative pursuits, because, well, who doesn't like talking about themselves? I'm going to try to be open and honest about the things I do well but also the things I totally mess up. It's so frustrating to me when I see those blogs that make it look like the author's life is perfect and all their projects are master pieces, because my life isn't like that at all. I want to remind people that everyone messes up, and that's ok. And I hope by doing so I can connect with other real folks who are also flawed.
I think that's it for today. After I finish posting this, I'm going to get back to work on a project I put down a few weeks ago, a very cool rustic fall pumpkin sign. I think I put it down for so long because there's one thing I really hate doing with my designs, and that's designing the words on a sign. I'm not bad at fonts, but I don't like doing them because they're really challenging :( But I just need to push through and get it done, so I can move on to something else!
I hope you all have a wonderful Monday, everyone! I'm so glad to be back!
Well, it's been several weeks that I've been on hiatus, and I realized yesterday that I'm so ready to get back to designing and blogging again. It was very nice to have some time off to focus on myself and my home and family, I won't deny that. I got my house back in order, I spent some time doing fun things with my husband, I did a bunch of sewing, and I'm well on my way on my diet too. But I realized this weekend that I was starting to get bored, and although I like a peaceful slow paced life, I don't think anyone likes a boring life. It's time to start being creative again!
I might change things up here at the blog. I don't think I'm going to post a free pattern every week like I used to, because that's very demanding. First of all, coming up with a new pattern every week is hard enough, but that's on top of making my paid patterns too. I think instead, I'm going to make free patterns when an idea strikes my fancy, rather than trying to force it. I'm always open to requests, by the way, so if you have any good ideas, just send them my way and I'll see what I can do!
I'm going to start writing more about my life and my creative pursuits, because, well, who doesn't like talking about themselves? I'm going to try to be open and honest about the things I do well but also the things I totally mess up. It's so frustrating to me when I see those blogs that make it look like the author's life is perfect and all their projects are master pieces, because my life isn't like that at all. I want to remind people that everyone messes up, and that's ok. And I hope by doing so I can connect with other real folks who are also flawed.
I think that's it for today. After I finish posting this, I'm going to get back to work on a project I put down a few weeks ago, a very cool rustic fall pumpkin sign. I think I put it down for so long because there's one thing I really hate doing with my designs, and that's designing the words on a sign. I'm not bad at fonts, but I don't like doing them because they're really challenging :( But I just need to push through and get it done, so I can move on to something else!
I hope you all have a wonderful Monday, everyone! I'm so glad to be back!
Monday, March 26, 2018
Happy Harvest Wall Hanging
Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you had an excellent weekend :) Mine was really good, although this week is going to be even better because it's finally starting to warm up! The snow is even starting to melt!
Well I got my rear in gear this lovely Monday morning and got my latest pattern finished, my Happy Harvest Wall Hanging!
It's a little early, of course, but this gives you plenty of time to get it finished for fall!
That's all for today! Have a great week!
Well I got my rear in gear this lovely Monday morning and got my latest pattern finished, my Happy Harvest Wall Hanging!
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| Happy Harvest Wall Hanging Pattern, $4 on Etsy |
It's a little early, of course, but this gives you plenty of time to get it finished for fall!
That's all for today! Have a great week!
Monday, March 12, 2018
A Time Out
Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you have all been well, and that you had a good weekend.
I'm writing today to say that I need a time out from blogging for a while. My life has gotten pretty busy lately. I've been working on some new designs that are large and complicated, and I have a deadline for them even, so they're taking top priority. But I also have just started my indoor seed starting for my garden, I've started a weight loss journey (aka a diet) and exercising more, and I've been trying to spend more time with my husband. That leaves me with less time to do everything else in my life, including blogging. As much as I enjoy working on this blog, it's not a top priority right now.
I can't say when I'll be back, but I do promise I'll be back sometime. Once life settles down a little, or I manage to find an extra hour in the day, I'll start posting again :) See you all then!
I'm writing today to say that I need a time out from blogging for a while. My life has gotten pretty busy lately. I've been working on some new designs that are large and complicated, and I have a deadline for them even, so they're taking top priority. But I also have just started my indoor seed starting for my garden, I've started a weight loss journey (aka a diet) and exercising more, and I've been trying to spend more time with my husband. That leaves me with less time to do everything else in my life, including blogging. As much as I enjoy working on this blog, it's not a top priority right now.
I can't say when I'll be back, but I do promise I'll be back sometime. Once life settles down a little, or I manage to find an extra hour in the day, I'll start posting again :) See you all then!
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Life is Sweet Wall Hanging
Happy Wednesday, everyone! I don't have a What's Up Wednesday this week because, well, life is too busy for me to sit and write about it. I will however run through some good things that have happened:
That last one is why I'm so busy. I need to get some more patterns done to send to Annie's! That's a good kind of busy though if you ask me.
Anyway, as part of that, I finally got off my butt and finished my summery watermelon wall hanging!
Hopefully you'll be seeing more patterns from me lately. I'm so ready to get back to a normal life after all the craziness this year!
Have a great rest of the day, everyone!
- I FOUND MY RING!
- My husband's job is secure!
- My first snowdrop opened yesterday!
- I got an email from Annie's asking for more patterns!
That last one is why I'm so busy. I need to get some more patterns done to send to Annie's! That's a good kind of busy though if you ask me.
Anyway, as part of that, I finally got off my butt and finished my summery watermelon wall hanging!
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| Life Is Sweet Wall Hanging Pattern, $4 on Etsy |
Have a great rest of the day, everyone!
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