Weight Loss Update and a Cutie

Well, it's February 1st

and I promised I would post an update

the first of every month.

For the month of January

I lost 6 lbs.

I had already lost weight before I started blogging about it,

so now I'm officially down 16 lbs.

But it's not just the weight loss I'm focusing on.

I want to also focus on the changes going on

with my perspective on life.

I've realized that somewhere down the path,

I lost  my fun side.

I've decided to become that fun person again.

So, I'll be going out more,

hanging out,

laughing,

releasing stress,

instead of forgetting how to have fun.

To be honest, I cannot believe

I forgot what it was like to go out and laugh so hard your belly hurts.

Never in my life time did I EVER think that would happen.

I also have felt the  power of letting go.

It's very awakening.

I still have a lot of mountains to climb,

and I'm curious what I'll be writing about come March 1st,

but for now,

I'm feeling like I can do this.

So...in  honor of my new adventure...

I tried some embroidery yesterday.

How cute is this?

I'm pretty much loving this little guy.

It may go on the pouch I'm making for the Mouth Stitches Swap

I'm participating in.

I think it could be pretty darn cute!

I hope you all are having the time of your life!

xoxo

Cindy



Make A Difference Monday - Goals

Holy Smokes!

4 minutes to get this weeks

message written and posted

before it's Tuesday!

What happened to my day?

YIKES!

So I've been thinking a lot about what I wanted to

write about this Monday.

My main purpose this year

is to become a better person

and loose weight in the process.

I think those are pretty attainable goals.

I read this quote today

(author unknown)

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. "

I think about what I've been working on this month.

I notice I think differently about things.

Before, my focus was food.

I know that may sound weird to you,

but to me, it's been my coping mechinism,

my best friend,

to get me through rough times,

sad times

and even happy times.

Now I have to look at reality.

And not bury my head in the sand

(or my mouth in the cake...so to speak.  LOL)
I am blessed to have a strong faith.

But I am a stubborn person,

and think I can do things

'on my own'

most of the time,

which can leave me in trouble,

if ya know what I mean.

I've had to make some pretty tough decisions this week.

One decision broke my heart

and left me crying for several days,

but I know it was a decision that needed to be made

and I needed to let go.

Sometimes life throws those little curve balls

and we have to be the stronger person.

Maybe this time last year,

I would have been selfish

and not acknowledged what needed to be done.

I would have held on

and tried to control the situation.

But I am no longer that person.

I can let go.

I can move on.

I can stick to my goals.

The more I stick to my goals,

the more I hold myself accountable,

the better I feel about myself.

I can feel the difference taking place.

It's pretty awesome,

and I know that in the end,

I am going to rise above.

I'm going to look back

and be thankful for what this time has brought me.

No regrets.

Just gratitude.

So, I get the quote.

I have a long way to go,

but I think I'm liking what I'm becoming.

xoxo

Cindy



Favourite Things Friday



Hey Everybody!

It's that time of week again,

to link up with Shay's

Favourite Things Friday.

(good gravy!  I almost missed it!)

So this week

my favorite thing

really isn't a "thing" after all.

It's my boys

My brother had his annual

BLT birthday bash last Saturday.

(BLT are the initials of my brother and two others that have created this annual event)

Now that my boys are old enough to participate,

they joined the party.

Now don't get me wrong.

It's not a sloppy drunk kind of party.

Just a get-together,

have a few drinks,

eat some good food,

sing some good karaoke

and laugh a whole bunch.

Who seriously does not need that in their life?

This year both of my boys were a RIOT.

I laughed so hard.

It was just a great time

for all of us to be together and enjoy each other's company.

My oldest, Jesse.

My youngest, Justin

(do you think he was embarrassed to be with me?)

And both of them singing a good 'ol redneck country song

Anytime that we can just hang out is a great time.

All of us in my household are so busy

that these times are rare.

But when they happen,

we know how to have fun.

And that is my absolute favorite thing.

Just all of us having a great time

and enjoying each others company.

I may mention that my boys are the best huggers EVER!

I love a good 'ol bear hug.

Nothing puts a smile on my face

bigger than that.

I am so blessed.

(Hey mom....are you smiling?  I lived up to my promise and did not post your picture)

LOL

May you find this much happiness in your favorite things every day!

xoxo

Cindy

Valentine Fun

Hey!

I needed to make a little something

to fill a void in an area in our livingroom.

On our sister sewing weekend,

Sarah gave me this cute little charm pack.

I think she was bribing me,

but that's another story.

:o)

So I thought I would make a cute Valentine table topper with it.

I sewed the squares together and added a border

 of Kona white.

Then I took this little ruler

placed it on the seams as such

and cut all of it into squares like this

Then...like a big puzzle

(I LOVE puzzles!)

I put all the pieces back together

to make this:

Added an outer border and it's now ready to be quilted.

All this in an afternoon.

A great, cute project!

But I find it funny that I sewed a bunch

of squares together, only to cut them

up and sew them together again.

Does that fall under the definition of insanity?

Hhhhmmmm.....

Things to ponder.

:o)

xoxo

Cindy

Make A Difference Monday

Happy Monday!

As I was searching for the next topic for this

Make A  Difference Monday,

I came across this article.

I couldn't say it better.

It's from Oprah's website,

so I am going to just copy and paste

for you to enjoy.

It's Not the Circumstances, It's You

By Mike Robbins
Original Content | February 19, 2010

Comments

Photo: Thinkstock

Imagine what your life would be like if you stopped blaming your circumstances on other people and things and took responsibility of your own life. Mike Robbins gives you the tools you need to take control of your life and become more aware of your experiences.

I recently read a great quote from Ben Franklin that I hadn't seen before. He said, "Joy doesn't exist in the world, it exists in us." While the quote was new to me, the concept wasn't. However, as I began to think it more, I realized that even though I "understand" this wisdom and do my best to live by it and remind others of it, more often than I'd like to admit, I find myself living as though I'm simply a victim of the things that go on around me and in the world—especially the stuff I don't particularly like, agree with, understand, feel like I'm on top of or enjoy.

The circumstances of our lives, especially when they seem stressful or intense (as is the case for many people I know and work with these days), do have an impact on us, for sure. However, all too often, we give away our power to these circumstances and situations. We act as though it's a foregone conclusion that we will feel a certain way, based on specific circumstances like the economy, the weather, our health, our level of activity, the state of our romantic relationship or lack thereof, the behavior of our children, our families, the state of our career or business or our environment at work.

Our experience of life (grateful, worried, peaceful, angry, excited, sad, alive, depressed, joyous or anything else) is much more of a reflection of us and what's going on within us, not a reaction to what's going on around us. We've all had many times in our lives when things were going great on the surface or we accomplished or experienced some wonderful external success, only to feel a sense of disappointment or sadness underneath because whatever it was didn't satisfy us at a deep level. And, on the flip side, most of us have had moments of incredible joy, excitement and bliss that weren't directly connected to anything worthy of these feelings externally.

Even though we know this dynamic to be true, we still seem to get caught in the hypnotic, erroneous notion that if we just got rid of some issues, altered some circumstances, manifested some increased success or changed some specific situations in our lives, then, we'd be happy, peaceful and relaxed (or whatever it is we say we want to experience).

Author and spiritual teacher Byron Katie says: "The definition of insanity is thinking that you need something you don't have. The mere fact that you exist right now without that which you think you need is proof that you don't need it."

 

What if we lived our lives with a deeper and more conscious awareness of the fact that we get to create our experience of life at any moment? Imagine what our lives, our careers and our relationships would look like if we stopped blaming our experience on other people or on external circumstances. We would free up so much positive energy and take back so much of our personal power.

Here are a few things you can do to enhance your capacity to own your experience of life in an empowering way:
 

• Admit when you play victim and give away your power. As is always the case, "The truth will set you free." Take a look into your life, especially in the areas where you find the most pain, suffering and struggle right now. Without judging yourself, can you find places where you're acting like a victim of your current circumstances, as though it is simply "happening to you"? The more honest and specific you can be about this, the more freedom it will provide for you.
  
  
• Acknowledge, own and express your underlying emotions. Whenever we go into victimhood, there is something we don't want to deal with, take responsibility for, experience or express emotionally. Even thought it can be a little painful and scary initially, by dealing directly with the emotions we're avoiding, we go to the source of the issue and address it at the root. Ironically, once we're able to acknowledge, own and express the emotions involved, much of the suffering and struggling go away—if we're willing to really take responsibility for and express what we're truly feeling.
  
• Make a commitment to fully own your experience. Declare to yourself and those who are close to you that you're willing to take 100 percent responsibility for your experience of life. This doesn't mean that stuff won't happen, but it does mean that you make a commitment to live your life by design, not default. It's also likely that you'll forget, slip up and fall back into victimhood from time to time (or often). However, making a commitment to yourself and to others—and also asking them to hold you accountable with honesty and kindness—can create an environment, both within you and around you, that is conducive for you to enhance your capacity to live your life with power and responsibility.
  
  

Give yourself some space and have a lot of compassion with yourself and others on this. Most of us have been trained, educated and encouraged to live in "victim consciousness"—even though it doesn't work or give us what we want ultimately. When we're willing to tell the truth, express our real emotions and make a commitment to live as designers of our experience, we can literally transform our lives in miraculous ways.

Mike Robbins is a best-selling author, sought-after motivational keynote speaker and personal growth expert who works with people and groups of all kinds. Robbins is the author of the best- selling books Focus on the Good Stuff and Be Yourself: Everyone Else Is Already Taken . He and his work have been featured on ABC News , in Forbes , Ladies Home Journal , Self and many others.


Read more: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Its-Not-the-Circumstances-Its-You/2#ixzz1kIa2jSuD

 

I could not have said this better myself.

I hope you are all finding some good things

in the Make A Difference Monday postings.

I would love to hear how you're doing!

xoxo

Cindy

 



Favourite Things Friday

Oh my gosh!

It is FREEZING here in Iowa!

I'm surprised I can get my fingers moving to type.

I'm not going to try not to write much in this post because I have a lot of photos to share.

I'm linking up to Shay's Favorite Things Friday.

(I have told you how freaking awesome this gal is??)

I actually have two favorite things this week.

The first is a quilt I helped participate in making.

We have a wonderful online friend

that is so incredibly talented

and so marvelously sweet.

Her name is Jeannie.

I invite you to click on her name and look at her photostream in Flickr.

She is an inspiration to all who come into contact with her.

I dearly love this woman.

I won't go into the reasons why we made this for her,

but I can tell you we all did it with love in our hearts.

Amy, from During the Quiet Time coordinated all of this.

She contacted us to make blocks. A group of us made them

and sent them to her. When all was said and done, Amy quilted it and shipped it to Jeannie.

It was an absolute honor to participate in this.

New friendships were made and along with a beautiful quilt where every stitch was done in love.

Thank you so much again, Amy, for putting this together!

You are an angel!

Jeannie's quilt front, a photo by During Quiet Time (Amy) on Flickr.

The second thing is my first sister sew in with Sarah.

Here are a few pictures to show you our fun.

(and I am totally kicking myself because our friend, Cyndi, was there and I didn't get one stinkin picture of that!!)

Mary & Sarah

Sarah's Fascade quilt top

Sarah's cute market bag 

Sarah's cute flower button

My cute market bag using some of my Happy Mochi Yum Yum fabric

A cute Break Buddy from a tutorial by Melissa.

It's great for carrying tea bags, Emergen-C packs ,

Crystal Lite packs, all those little goodies!

(Melissa - do you recognize the fabrics?  wink wink)

And the inside

It was a great little goodie to make and super easy to put together. 
I HIGHLY recommend you make one for yourself!
I have to make another one for me.
Little Miss Mary liked it so much that I just couldn't keep it.

So there you have my longgggggggggggg Favourite Things Friday post!
I hope I didn't bore you!

Until next time, keep the creative juices flowing!
XOXO
Cindy

Friday Night Sew-In and Mouthy Stitches Swap!

Well hey there!

What are you doing Friday night?

Wanna hang out?

Wanna sew with me?

If sew (lol), then head on over to

Crafty Vegas Mom's blog

and sign up for:

It's a lot of fun

and there's also always a giveaway.

Who can pass that up?

Heck, the prize for me is just being able

to have an excuse to

"get my sew on".

Also, though sign ups are now closed,

I am in another swap,

Mouthy Stitches,

however, I don't have my partner

assigned to me yet.

(God help the person who gets me!)

Here's my little mosaic of goodies:

We'll be swaping a pouch and a fat quarters worth of scraps.

How fun is that?

And the baby in the mosaic?

Well...that's just for cutnes.

I always like to put one picture

just for fun

in my mosaics.

:o)

Hope you have a happy Tuesday!

xoxo

Cindy