[changes]

Life is getting to be a lot different than it was just a few short months ago...

I am excited to share my very personal journey of weight loss! A Little Greenlings exclusive!
Here is January at the beginning of my journey. I was about 170 lbs.



This is now:



You'll have to excuse the half naked photos. That's really the only way to take such pictures. :)
And I am still going! I am about 10 lbs away from my "ultimate" goal, which basically just means that any more of a loss will leave me looking frail and emaciated.
I've done this the old fashioned way: eating right and exercising. I have ups and downs but I stay on track for the most part.

So that is my life in a nutshell right now. Changes.

[latest creations]

I have been sewing quite a bit lately. In between making messes, cleaning them up, playing with the kids and facebooking, that is.




Appliqued capris made for a friend.




My first attempt at a wool skirty. Look how big she is getting! It freaks me out.

While looking for pictures of us I have come to the conclusion that I just don't take enough to begin with. I will have to start taking more.

[rowan turns eight months]

Every month I take a picture of Rowan on her personalized quilt. It is cute to see how big she is getting in relation to the blanket.
This is how today's picture went.

Lucky shot:



.5 Seconds after:

[separation anxiety]

My poor sewing machine is sitting on the ground looking sad and lonely.
I have it out because I've been meaning to sew up a pillow for my bed for the last two weeks.
Unfortunately stuff gets in the way, mainly an almost 8 month old who won't let me put her down ever. It's getting really old.
But how can you say no to a face like this?



She's been nursing a lot today so I think we may see more teeth soon.

[busy]

things I am doing in 2012:

• Redecorating my house
• Decluttering
• Redoing my wardrobe
• Drinking lots of decaf
• Snuggling my babies
• Using up my fabric scraps
• Redecorating this blog
• Babywearing
• Walking
  

[around the house]

The last few days I have been busy working around the house.
I had been holding myself a pity party and decided to take a good friend's advice and just build a bridge and get over it.
That starts with making my house a cleaner, more comfortable place to live.

So today I have been keeping busy. First, I cleaned my fridge. It was so disgusting that I won't bother to show you the before pic. Just embarrassing.



Please ignore the very bottom down there. I still need to clean that part.
Here is a closer look:



Lunchtime! Peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a craisin face, wheat crackers and veggie chips on the side. He is having one of his eat every 15 minutes days so he had just eaten yogurt and turkey right before this.



After that I had some bananas that were getting dark so it was banana muffin time!
Love these muffins, they have never done me wrong.



Recipe:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I use unbleached, you can use whatever. Wheat might even work as well.)
3/4 cup sugar [I'm so hardcore using regular old sugar! ;)]
3 bananas (I used 2 this time because it's what I had on hand)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup melted butter
1 egg

Makes about 12 large muffins.
Preheat oven to 350.
Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In separate bowl combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter. Sometimes I also add a hint of vanilla extract. Mix until it is as lumpy as you'd like. The more overripe your bananas, the creamier the texture.
Fold in flour mixture until well blended.
Pour into greased muffin pan or cupcake liners.
Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

By the way, I tried to take pics of the muffins baked, but they were all eaten before I had the chance. Oops.

[another crafty day]

I felt inspired to fix one of Rowan's wool soakers today.
I bought it for $10 and when I got it realized it was stretched out BIG time.
Here is a comparison of a normal sized s/m Luxe soaker and this super stretched one.



And here is what it looked like before altering it to fit Rowan:



The leg holes were humongous and would probably never have fit her properly.

Here it is after:



Fits her great in the legs so no worries about leaks.

And the bum!



Elephant applique made with upcycled wool sweater.

I also made a cute wool soaker with the same sweater earlier this week.
I actually made a pair of pants too but I don't have a pic of those yet.



This one is nothing special but it does the job!
I spent maybe $4 for the sweater a year ago and got a soaker, a pair of pants and probably enough left to make a smaller soaker to possibly sell. The Luxe cover cost me $10. So I paid $14 for 2+ soakers and a pair of pants. Not too shabby!