Resolutions

Yes, I KNOW that it's January 5. I KNOW that most bloggers posted their resolutions days ago. I guess I'm just not most bloggers! :)


1) To spend more time with Hubby.

For years (at least since the Prince was born!) we've talked about needing to have a regular date night. This year, we're doing it. I've decided that Sundays will be our date night, and we're going out at least every other week. Yesterday was our first date night. I surprised him by taking him to a local winery, where we got to taste all of their varieties (we'd never tried any of their wines). Our favorite was called Bed Head Red, and our #2 was All Night White. Both cheap and good!

After the winery we went to our local British pub for dinner. I had my favorite "beer"- Strongbow cider, and we both had fish & chips. All in all, a very nice night out.

2) To lose some of this weight!

I haven't been on a scale for a while, but I'm sure I'm 20 lbs over my WW goal weight. It's been just over 1.5 years since I last weighed in at goal and I'd really like to be back there. I have several ideas for this weight loss (detailed over at my other blog), but in a nutshell I'm going to pay more attention to what I'm eating and drinking... and cut out some of the more fattening foods that I've been munching on these days.

That's it. Just 2 resolutions for this new year. I think that they are good resolutions, worthwhile and realistic. I want my resolutions to be attainable, I think these are. Last year I resolved to get back to my WW goal weight (and failed, obviously!)- I'm not planning on stepping on a scale until my pants fit better. I'm not worrying about a number on a scale, but I'm interested in the number on the tag in my pants (it is definitely NOT the number I was wearing when I was at goal!).

If you haven't shared them already, what are YOUR resolutions for this new year?

Camera Suggestions?

Ages ago, I mentioned that my beloved camera was kaput. I still haven't replaced it, but after some hassles with the extended warranty, I now have a gift card worth the original price of the camera. (This is good, because I bought it shortly after it came out, so the price has gone down from what I paid!)



I've decided that since we're SO close to Thanksgiving, I'll wait and purchase on Black Friday with the great deals that are sure to be available. I want high resolution and good zoom, but I don't need to stick to Canon (as this was my second Canon to die an abrupt death!). I want to be able to connect easily to my Mac, and I don't want a big camera that I can't slip into my purse or pocket.

I'd LOVE some suggestions. What do you love/hate about your camera?

Pink Christmas

Have you heard of this? From their site:

Pink Christmas - What is it?

Pink Christmas is a annual Girlfriend Give and Get. You make a handmade Christmas Gift(or you can purchase a handmade gift from one of our sponsors if you want to join but don't think you are crafty) for a mystery girlfriend around the world and another girlfriend will be making something for you - only to opened on Christmas morning.

It is only an optional $15.00 donation to sign up. Sign up fee is donated to the Pink Christmas Family for 2008.

This year Pink Christmas will be sponsoring a entire family - they are amazing. They have immigrated to Washington D.C. from Africa and are beginning their new life. They have 4 amazing children. Ages 12, 8, 2 and just a few months old. The sweet mother just had twins but one passed away and the other little boy is still in the hospital weighing just a few pounds. They need everything that you could think of to begin a new life in a new home. All the money will go to helping them get the necessities to do just that.



I think this sounds like a really neat idea for us craft bloggers to get behind. I signed up a few weeks ago and wanted to get the word out there before sign-ups are closed (this Thursday, July 31st!). Just go to the Pink Christmas blog and follow the directions to sign up- partner for the give-and-get will be announced by September 1.

Swistle Groupie/Pay It Forward

COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED ON THIS POST!

So Swistle decided that a group effort Pay It Forward would be big fun this summer. All sorts of Pay It Forwards happening at the same time, then domino-ing and being a big fun summer fun thing... read about it here and here.

What will you win? Ummm.... I dunno. Maybe a collection of junk drawer/fabric stash/greeting card collection/Target. Maybe homemade cookies. Who knows? I'll figure that out and surprise you- I won't even post about your surprise so you can have fun opening your gift!

Enter by commenting on this post, with an answer to this question: It's Saturday afternoon and you have the whole afternoon to yourself- what do you do?
Entries will be accepted until 11:59 PM CST Friday, July 4.

Awards, awards!

Wowzas... I have been given 3 awards recently! QuiltDad chose to give me the Arte Y Pico award a couple of weeks ago, and Jay at Bailey's Buddy chose me for the same one tonight!

Also tonight, as a tongue-in-cheek response to all of these blog awards, Kurt bestowed upon me a very special award: the Grand Illustrious Most Excellent Blog in the World Award.

I feel so very appreciated!






















So. The rules for the Arte Y Pico award are:

1) Pick five (5) blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog.

Jay tried to give this to blogs that hadn't yet recived it- I apologize, I've just been behind on posting about it! I am also going to avoid giving this to those that I know have received it... though I know that they might just be like me and haven't mentioned it yet. I am choosing seven bloggers for the Arte Y Pico award, because I can't really choose 7.5 (which is a nice compromise between 5 and 10, because I've been given this twice).

1) Lera at the sky is pink is one of my favorite bloggers. She's a creative gal and accomplishes a lot for being a mother of 6. Even hubby has been known to read her blog!

2) AmandaJean at crazy mom quilts is so inspiring! She creates beautiful quilts, and is leading her own online quilt-a-long, all while being a mom to 3 young kids. I wish I knew how she finds the time to do as much as she does.

3) Jen at AmazingTrips is pretty amazing herself. She has triplets (age 3) and a 1-yr-old son. She has just gone back to work (to help pay for preschool!) and seems to be coping with work and home pretty well.

4) Jill and Meg at Bee-Boppin' the Boroughs. These gals are working their way through an NYC guidebook and blogging their experiences for us! Having only spent a short amount of time in NYC, I enjoy their walks through the city. Jill also has a crafty blog, where she recently announced her pregnancy- congratulations!

5) Finny at Finny Knits is a funny gal, and in her words, "not for everyone". When it's growing season, she offers many pictures of her gardens and the food that she creates from her garden (and a farm share)... when it isn't growing season (and sometimes when it is!) she shows off her creative side, complete with an honest rundown of her thoughts of said project.

6) Mary at MaryQuilts- Making Scraps Quilts from Stash does beautiful longarm quilting, and does quite a bit for the HeartStrings Quilt Project. She is getting to know a new city, and posts beautiful pictures of the scenery that she is enjoying.

7) Nanette and her daughters at Freda's Hive are so creative and always have interesting photos to share- from their own projects or those of their friends. Their first post is one of the better first posts I've read- a sweet story that explains the name of their blog.


Thanks to you that I'm nominating for brightening my days.
I have too many several blogs in my reader and it was hard to decide which 7 to choose.

HELP! TOTAL COMPUTER FAILURE! .... and my first GIVEAWAY!

PLEASE HELP!

I haven't been around blogland much in the last couple of days- I know that several people have left comments and I haven't had a chance to respond to them... I'm really sorry! I have a good reason, though, and I'm begging for your help!



My computer suffered a heart attack Monday night and yesterday it was wiped clean and revived. I have spent the better part of the last two days working on it and have it almost back up and really going... but I lost ALL of my bookmarks.



I know that doesn't sound like much, but I had a lot of bookmarks.



Please help me replace them! I would love it if you would leave a comment (or several), recommending sites that I should visit and bookmark. Here I'm really looking for crafting/quilting/sewing sites and blogs. I know that I had several tutorials bookmarked- the Everything Bag, a tute that explained how to figure how much fabric was needed for binding, some quilt patterns for charm packs, and so many other great things. I'm so bummed that I've lost all of those links. Thank goodness I didn't lose my reading list- Google Reader has kept that safe for me!



I'm trying out Firefox (I've been a Safari user for years), and am using a plug-in that saves all my bookmarks online... so I should never have this problem again.

So you want to help me, right? Let's have some fun with it! Comment with a suggestion or two (or three). If your suggestion(s) is a new one (not already mentioned by someone else), you'll get a chance in a drawing. One chance per original site suggestion, up to three.

Mention this on your blog and refer others here... you'll get another chance in my drawing for each commenter that says you referred them. I'll leave this open until 6 A.M. (Central Time!) on Sunday, June 22. A prize has not yet been determined... I'll let you know asap! (Give me a break- I didn't plan on having this problem, so I didn't plan on a giveaway this week!)



If you have weight loss/weight watchers/healthy recipes sites or blogs that you'd like to share, I lost all of those bookmarks, too- and would love it if you'd leave those on my other blog. Sorry- I'm not doing a giveaway for those, just here for the crafty sites. Thanks!


THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

How'd you find me?

I've noticed quite a spike in my daily visits over the past 4-5 days, and this really intrigues me.

Is it because I've been commenting more on other blogs and you're following my comments? Is is because I'm doing the Quilt-A-Long and the Two-Color Quilt Challenge? I'm interested. Please comment and let me know how you found me. Thanks!