DSC_2756

DSC_2756
Originally uploaded by sottoeck

Another cold day in Stockholm!

DSC_2731

DSC_2731
Originally uploaded by sottoeck

I made some new curtains for our bedroom. Steve's mom was a huge help with this. She figured out out all the things we had to do to make them look like this!

Hello Again

Well, it has been a very long time since I last blogged.
I really don't know why I stopped, other than I really never had a lot to say.

Sometimes I felt like Steve just said it all.

I do have some new news. I have started a 1200 calorie diet per the recommendation of an Endocrinologist at the U of M. I have been trying to lose weight for many years and nothing seems to have been working.

It has to happen though as my back is not getting any better and the more weight I lose the better off I will be.

In the first week I lost 2 pounds, which is what the Dr. wants to see. It has been very hard for me. I really had no idea how much food is in a 1200 calorie diet. Needless to say it is not a lot.

I have been doing frozen meals buffered with fresh veggies, frozen veggies and some fruit and yogurt. The Dr. suggested Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating meals, but I am still experimenting with the grocery store stuff.

Time will tell if this is a viable option for me. I hope it is as I need to make a change.

Sewing Machine

I have been thinking about getting a sewing machine for awhile now. This mostly occurs when I buy new pants. I am pretty short, and even the short lengths are usually to long. So I usually have to hit my mother-in law up for a hem, or go and pay a ton of money at a tailor.

Steve said that it is going to be hard to get the cost of the machine out of the money saved doing my own hemming. I agreed with that and then told him I had other ideas for it to.

His reply was, "heh." Now granted I have taken up a few hobbies that I have gotten very into. By into I mean bought a ton of stuff to do it, used very little of said stuff and then let it sit around. (Examples: Scrape booking, Embroidering, and so on.)

I really did not appreciate his lack of enthusiasm for my new venture. So I said that I would make him a purple velour leisure suit. He was not keen on this, but did ask if I could make him a cape.

I said that I would make him, and Pippen one so that they matched. To that I got another "heh."

But in the end I got my sewing machine. Time will tell if it is a dust catcher or not.

Christmas Presents

This was the bookmark that I embroidered for Grandma Eck this year for Christmas.

I freehanded the design and then just started to stitch.

I do not know how to do counted crosstitch and this was my first attempt at working with aida cloth.

Grandma Eck has beautiful crosstitching at her place. She used to be able to do it when her eyes were better.

She called and said she liked it, and I said that it was no where near as good as hers, but I enjoyed making it for her.

Library

The Dakota County libraries are really very nice. They have a ton of branches and offer tons of selection.

My favorite thing about them is the online services. My friend Andrea told me that you could request items online and also have a huge list of materials you wanted but where not available at this time. Some of the books I am waiting for have huge request times. On one of them I am 165th in line.

Anyways, I ran into a bit of trouble with my list. I had requested 15 or 16 books by a couple of authors that I decided I wanted to read, Sharon Sala is one of them.

I did this on Sunday the 10th of November. On Tuesday the 13th I received notification that I had materials available. 7 books! Then on Friday the 16th a received another notification saying that I had 3 more books to pick up.

Needless to say Steve made fun of me. I said that I was going to read them all in the 21 day period that you get. He said that that was a little aggressive and that I could always renew them. Well, being stubborn about renewing things I started reading.

The verdict: I read 8 of the 10 library books, (the 2 unread books were historical romances that I just won't read) and 1 of my own books.

This took me 16 days.

Who knows, maybe I'll try it again!

Halloween

I really enjoy Halloween, and not just because of the candy!
I like all the cute little kids and their costumes, and I like handing out the candy.

Steve likes to eat the candy.

In the years past we have just had enough candy, had almost the exact amount, and also ran out of candy twice.

So this year I was not going to run out. I bought around 180 pieces of candy, a 12 pack of teddy grahams, and a 12 pack of fruit snacks. The grahams and fruit snacks were a hit with the wee ones. The candy was also a hit, other than we had way less kids this year. We probably have about 100 pieces of candy left!!!

It was a little disappointing that we did not have as many kids, but there is always next year.

I need to figure out a nice high place to put the leftovers otherwise I will be in big trouble!