January Sewing Projects

#1 King size pillow cover - this is one of two that I am making for a new reading nook I am creating in Olivia's room (you can see my sewing companion in this pic!)

#2  I am making small crayon rolls using an in-the-hoop embroidery pattern as Valentine goodies for Olivia's preschool class.  Her class has 6 boys and 6 girls.  I completed 5 boy ones.

#3  Sewing Machine Cover

#4  Cord keepers

Low Carb Baking

Shortly before Christmas I found out that I am moving out of the prediabetic stage I have been in for many years and moving closer to an official diagnosis of diabetes.  I was disappointed by this news but not surprised.  I have put myself 'last' for several years now and not taken care of myself the way that I should.  Since Christmas I have started making changes in my diet and have lost 8 lbs so far.  I hope to continue that trend as I make more changes and eventually reach a healthy weight again. 

As part of these changes I am embarking on the adventure of learning to bake low carb.  I have always enjoyed baking (and eating) so the thought of not having baked goods is just not acceptable.  After researching a great deal I made a list of items I needed to stock up on and placed my order.  In case you are not aware, low carb baking is NOT cheap.  The necessary flours and sugar substitutes are an investment.  Oh, but I digress.  Anyway, while waiting for my supplies to arrive I noticed I had almond meal in my pantry.  Almond meal is not optimal for low carb baking because it has a coarse texture but I read that it can suffice in scones or muffins so I decided to try my hand at my first ever low carb 'bread' item, a savory scone.  I found the recipe here  If you open the link you will see that my scones are nowhere near as pretty as Carolyn's but I think they tasted the way that they should.  I had never had a savory scone before so it was a little odd to me but I made them to go with a soup and they seemed to work perfectly in that capacity.  I am looking forward to my supplies arriving and baking my first low carb sweet treat.

Blog Frustration

I like using the Blogger (Google) App on my iPad if I have pictures on my iPad....it is really nice.  But, sometimes my pictures are on my Canon so I have to download them to my laptop then upload them into the blog through the Blogger website.  For some reason, even though I am rotating my pics and saving them before I upload them, the Blogger website wants to change them back to their original orientation so they post incorrectly on the blog.  The editing features within the blog do not allow a change in rotation so I'm stuck with either no pictures or upside down pictures unless the pictures are stored on my iPad.  So, that is why I have not been posting.  If anyone reading knows how to fix this issue please let me know.

Christmas 2013

Christmas seemed so short this year.  Mark had to work the day before and after so we didn't leave til late afternoon on Christmas Eve to head to my Mom's and and were only there til the following evening.  We had alot of fun though!  

On Christmas Eve our tradition is to go to my Dad's side of the family for the evening.  We eat dinner, load up into about five or six car and drive around Christmas caroling to friends of the family and then come back and just hang out for several hours, opening presents late in the evening.  Every year before now Olivia was just a hot mess and I ended up leaving early to take her back to my Mom's to sleep while Mark stayed behind.  This year I was VERY surprised that Olivia was mostly happy the entire evening and we actually stayed til midnight.  The last 30 minutes we were there she was fussy but up until then she had a ball.  She absolutely LOVED caroling and playing with her second cousin Nathan.  We even moved his carseat to our car so they could be together for the drive.  Every year I try to make something homemade for my aunts and uncles.  This year I made East Coast Applique's Dove Ornaments on my embroidery machine.  

The next day Olivia woke to find that Santa had visited her at Nana's house and later my brother and his wife came over and we enjoyed lunch together and more presents.  I had been very sick in November and December so I actually finished sewing Olivia's Christmas pants on Christmas Eve! 

Great Wolf Lodge

We took our second trip to Great Wolf Lodge in early January.  We have enjoyed both of our trips to the Concord, NC location but have agreed that the next time we are able to go we would like to check out the Williamsburg, VA location.  Each time we've gone to Concord we have ended up at IKEA and spent more time than we expected, missing out on prime water park time.  So, in the future we will try to separate Great Wolf Lodge trips from IKEA trips!  Here are some pictures from our trip.  This was the first time Olivia ever went bowling.  She was not nearly as interested as we had hoped but that was likely because of the huge game room next door that she saw on her way in.  We also made sure she visited the Cub Club before we left.  She talked for two days before we arrived about wanting to make a necklace there!