Disappointment and Inspiration

Alright, let's start with an update on the weight loss issue. Unfortunately, this was not such a good month. I hate to have to admit it but I have gained a few pounds back. I feel I should be honest about my accomplishments as well as my setbacks. My exercise was pretty steady but the eating was off. It was a tough month, with in-laws in town the first half of the month and a trip to the parents house last weekend (seriously, here's a partial menu: corn casserole, green bean casserole, squash casserole, all made with "cream of" soups). Plus, that pizza last night couldn't have helped. In between times I really tried to follow the good eating patterns but it just didn't work out so well this month. I weighed in today at 196. The good news is that my lean mass (muscle) has increased and my fat mass has stayed about the same so basically I just maintained this month - which is good. I am disappointed but I am trying to just examine everything and move forward. I will try to follow the same patterns in April that I did in February when I lost 4 pounds. My new goal is to reach 190 by the end of April. My trainer gave me some new tips today about eating protein. Within my 300 calorie allowance at meals and snacks, I should try to get in 20 grams of protein. It is a new thing to think about. I am glad she gives me this information a little at a time. She is so smart!

As I mentioned, we went to my parents house over the weekend to celebrate my grandmother's 77th birthday. It was a lot of fun and we got to play 42 with my parent on Sunday before we left. It is always a grudge match and this time James and I won. Hooray! I really enjoyed talking to my Aunt Shelia. She went to Africa on a three week missionary trip last year and had a lot of interesting stories. The foremost thing I got from her is just how weird she felt coming back and realizing all the conveniences she takes for granted. She is a teacher and will retire in three years. She and my uncle would love to go over there and work when she retires. Very inspiring. What a rich experience.

I finally made it to yoga last week. It was so nice. I don't know why I let myself slack from that. Plus, I have to say that now that I have been exercising and getting stronger (and smaller in some places) the poses have a new feeling to them. It is amazing.

My business has been pretty slow this month but it has really given me the opportunity to think about new designs and what direction I want to go in. One of my ads is coming out on April 1st so hopefully that will draw in some business. I had a wholesale order last week from a previous customer. It is amazing how things work out. I really needed some cash to do another ad and then that order came along! Also, my consignment customer that I had to "get tough" with finally paid this week. It's nice to get results. heh. I also spoke with a pr person and got a quote for pr work. It is still quite out of my price range but sometimes just gaining new information can help you along. I have been working on a lot of new jewelry ideas in the last week. Lately I am finding it is really helpful to sit down and sketch out my ideas before diving into the supplies. I can always go back to my drawings for inspiration for new stuff. That is not to say that my drawings are great though! I would never want to show them to anyone! I started to get more serious with the drawings in NY and now I am so glad I did. I would never have remembered all those little architectural details if I hadn't sketched them. I am toying with the idea of putting a business blog up on my site. Melissa finished my print ad and it is just so beautiful. I can't wait for it to come out!

Went out for pizza with the crafty girls last night. It was a lot of fun. But too loud! I left feeling like I hadn't really gotten to visit with anyone. Hopefully I will see them all again soon to catch up.

What's up with banana chips?

I was eating some dried banana chips yesterday thinking about how much healthier it was than eating chocolate cake. Then I happened to look at the nutrition facts - 11 grams of saturated fat per serving, 58% of your recommended daily allowance of saturated fat. What the hell is going on here, I ask you?

the week in review

Heh, this blog is becoming weekly! Okay, for the last week...

The in-laws got here on Friday. My niece is so much bigger now and talking! She is so cute. We had a great time. Brenda and I went shopping at the outlet mall on Saturday. I got a rug from the pottery barn store. Check it out:

Sorry the picture is kind of crappy. I am finally learning how to use my camera when it is not connected to my computer. But, I am so proud of the rug! Zaphod ruined our old one and we have not been able to find one we could afford and liked.

I spent a lot of time hanging out with family over the last week. My niece really impressed me when she thanked me, without prompting from any adult, for a necklace I had sent her months ago. She wears it a lot. I made it out of junk jewelry to go with the princess dresses I know she likes to play dress up in. Her good manners earned her more necklaces! I brought over a bunch of junk jewelry and made her a bunch of necklaces, clip on earrings and a charm bracelet. I let her string a necklace as well. She was so into it. She was lying on the floor rolling around, putting beads on the string and singing a "la la" song she was making up as she went along. My mother-in-law asked James if that was what I did when I was making a necklace. I think I will have to try it out as a creative exercise. Anyway, I really like making play jewelry with all the junk jewelry I will never be able to use on my pieces that I put on the site. I want to make more play jewelry for all the other little girls I know.

On the last night they were here, we got a call from Glen to go rescue Brenda! We took her out for margaritas and tex-mex at gueros. It was a lot of fun. Then we met up with Glen at the four seasons hotel bar. Good times.

Yesterday was James and my 5th wedding anniversary. He is so sweet! We agreed the rug would be our wedding anniversary present to ourselves but he also brought home some beautiful flowers with a note that almost made me cry it was so sweet.

We went out for sushi and had champagne. It was a super great evening. Forest spent the night with a friend so we had the house to ourselves. We came home and hung out for a while and then watched Howls Moving Castle. It was a pretty perfect date!

Other than that I have just been spending way too much time on MySpace. It is so addicting! I made Wednesday and Thursday my weekend because I was so exhausted from the family visit. Yesterday I ran about a thousand earrands and got tough with one of my consignment places on late payment issue. That was empowering. I got a consignment request from Taos and I think I am going to do it. They have good policies. I took Melissa to the airport on Wednesday morning - She is in Mexico this week, living it up! I think I am about to make another wholesale order to an existing customer and that is exciting for me. I really need to spend some quality time at my workbench soon! My mom is coming tonight so we can go to citywide tomorrow.

Now I gotta go do some laundry and get to the gym! I have seriously been slacking on the exercise this week. That is bad!

there's no real theme for this entry

Wow. What can I say? I was totally wrong about Santino winning Project Runway. Chloe did a great job and her collection was beautiful! I am going to be so sad next Wednesday night when there is no Project Runway to watch!

Some highlights from the last week... last Thursday I had lunch with Kristin, Rachel and Donna at Whole Foods. Saturday night we went to some friend's house for a very good dinner and great conversation. I got my accounting caught up from last Fall. I started updating my website. I have gotten a few orders now from the myspace page which is nice considering how much time I have put into it. Also made a decision to advertise in rare this summer since they are doing that special for the Austin design community. I am really amped about all the advertising.

Today was a super busy day. I met with my trainer this morning, had lunch with Jennifer P., went by p&l to drop off items, mailed orders, went by the bank, picked up office supplies and had a facial. The facial was a very interesting experience. I have had one other facial. It was so relaxing! Today was quite different. I started asking her a lot of questions about my adult acne problem and the scars I still have from my teenage acne. She said that micro derm abrasion would help that and offered me a free treatment. Holy crap. It was like she was rubbing sandpaper all over my face. Then she got out this electric thing and zapped my face in all these places to help my face not break out. It was like I was in some old frankenstein movie. Kind of funny. A little pricky feeling. I am sure it was all for my own good. No really, I am griping about it but actually I am really excited to see the results! She followed all this up with the relaxing part - neck and arm massage and fancy stuff on my face. I came away smelling all aveda-y. Nice! Fun experience. She said it would take about 8 micro derm treatments to make the scars go away. I kinda want to do it! I hate the pits in my cheeks.

Lunch with Jennifer P. was great. I came away super excited and inspired. We caught up and talked about a lot of biz and marketing stuff and she was very encouraging about my ideas. She has so much cool stuff going on. I am in awe!

Man, it has been such a crazy week. I think it is because I had to do so much accounting work. Every night I found myself wishing for more hours in the day. Even tonight after my busy day I am doing laundry and cleaning house and hoping to sit down at my jewelry desk to work for a while tonight. I don't know if I have a balancing problem or just load myself up with too much work. I do think that having all that accounting work done has freed up some creative energy though. It feels like a monkey off my back!

Short rant: I had a weird experience on Sunday. I was asked to lead a girl scout badge-getting thing where they would make stretchy bracelets. I was supposed to talk to them about jewelry and show them stuff I had made and discuss all the different types of jewelry. I was just doing it because my friend who usually does it had to be out of town. Now remember, I was totally volunteering my time. So everyone got there and I was talking to the kids and they were all cute and fun and then we started and I got really nervous. I just ended up talking so fast through my talk and forgetting half of the stuff I was supposed to say - All the mother's were sitting on one side of the room and they just made me feel really nervous. So then I got the girls to pick out their beads and I was going to show them how to do it but they all already knew how and finished really early and then the mother's were all griping saying that this activity was supposed to last an hour and a half. I was like, "I'm sorry, the girls just worked really fast." *smile, nervous laugh* In hindsight I totally should have talked slower but seriously folks, public speaking is really not my thing - especially with a bunch of helicopter moms staring me down. They were just so freakin' rude! It was a horrible experience. I wish I hadn't agreed to do it. *shutter* Shake it off!

Looking forward to a fun weekend. Tomorrow I am having lunch with my new friend Liz. And then my in-laws are coming into town for sxsw. Glen, my brother-in-law has a film in the film festival - Conversations with Other Women, I totally recommend it. I am excited to see Brenda, my sister-in-law and Charlotte, my niece. I haven't seen those two in two years! Brenda and I are going to try to slip out to go shopping at the outlet mall. Fun! Charlotte who is now almost four has grown so much, I can't wait to see her at this age. She is really cute! I am interested to talk to her and see what she is into.

Next week on Thursday is my 5 year wedding anniversary. We wanted to make some kind of super cool trip but once we started looking at trip we realized that everything is really expensive right now because of Spring Break. So, we are just going to go on a nice date and then do something really cool this summer, like go to San Francisco with Forest for a long weekend.

Alright, I suppose that is it for now. Back to the grind.

Best Show Ever

Lately on Saturday mornings we have been getting up late, making breakfast or picking up breakfast tacos and settling in to watch Best Week Ever while we eat and have coffee. It is so fun! I love this show. In case you haven't seen it, they pull a bunch of crazy clips together from all the shows during the week and they have comedians and other guests making comments. This weekend's guests were Santiono Rice and Daniel V. from Project Runway. Really funny. It's on VH1 and they rerun it all weekend so you can probably catch it if you want.

And, on Project Runway, I have officially changed who I am rooting for - for a while I thought it would be Daniel V., but after last week's episode where we saw a bit of their collections, I think it's going to be Santino. Yay Santino!! Who's with me?

Ladies who lunch

Okay, I don't have anything mindblowing to say today but I want to keep up the journal, at least on a weekly basis. Here is a rundown of the last week...

Last Friday night I went up to Jennifer R.'s to pick up a changing table - I had loaned her the changing table I used with Forest and now her girls are just about grown out of needing it so now I have it back. It is such a funky old changing table. My mom used it with us kids. Now I need to find a new home for it. I might just use it for storage in my office. Anyway, she and Chloe and I went to a tea place in downtown Round Rock. It was really cool! We had yummy scones with clotted cream and a pot of really good peppermint-y tea. It was fun.

On Saturday I saw Munich at the alamo with James and Forest. It was such an intense movie. We went for tacos afterward and I was really amazed at how much Forest had paid attention and enjoyed it. After that I had an appointment to meet a woman who had posted that she had some vintage seed beads to give away. She also had this huge box of old jewelry that a friend wanted to sell. We arranged a price and I spent the entire evening combing through it. Omg, such treasures!! I hit the jackpot. James was out with friends for the evening so while I went through the new goodies I watched In Good Company and then followed it up with The Big Chill. Forest was grounded for some transgression he had committed during the week so he watched the movies with me and cleaned old jewelry for me. Big hint to parents - if you want your teenager to spend more time with you, just ground them. Works like a charm! ;)

Sunday, Jennifer R. came over and let me take pictures of my newest jewelry on her for the website and then we went to Michael's to get embroidery notions and then to the glitterati meeting. The meeting was so fun! The usual cast of characters plus some fun new people. Love that group of girls. Dixie and I could not stop talking about Tim Gun on Project Runway. Carry On.

Monday was housework all day long. Seriously, at least 12 hours. Plus grocery shopping.

Tuesday I met my friend Tamsen for lunch, did housework and worked on jewelry.

Wednesday, yesterday, was pretty much biz stuff all day. Melissa came over and brought lunch and I looked at all her new work and gave her some feedback. Her new stuff is really neat! Such an artist.

I managed to cook dinner three nights this week. That is like some kind of record for me! I hope I can keep up this new habit.

On the weight loss front: By the end of the month, I was only able to lose down to 194. But - I am fine with it! I am so happy. I think I set my goal a little high at 190 but I think it really kept me motivated. I also learned a lot from trying some new things with eating this month, like that if I think of meals as snacks rather than meals, they tend to be lighter. My trainer said I should be trying to do 300 calories at each meal which is almost impossible. So, that kind of informed my decision to make my meals lighter. Anyway, I am starting to figure some things out! Hooray! My new goal for March: to reach 188. That is 6 pounds. I am going to follow the same things I did for February. Will keep you posted!

Okay, time to head off to meet my trainer. Today is our weigh in and measurement. I can't wait to see if I have lost more inches.

Reading back over this, I think I am really liking to "lunch" these days. Ladies who lunch. ha.