Busy February

Hi everyone! I've been MIA for a while here on my blog! So sorry about that, but February has turned out to be busy for me! As an update, I did manage to clear out the apartment for my January goals. It felt soooo good to get things organized, but it's been a challenge to keep things that way. I feel like there are always things to pick up or put away, so it just never ends!

This month my husband and I started planning our summer vacation. We're going on a very long road trip all the way out to Seattle to go to the Sasquatch Music Festival and then driving all the way back. We'll be stopping multiple places on each way, so it's going to be a great trip! Plus I'll get to see Mumford & Sons and Cake live! (And a million other bands...)

With the goal of getting healthier and more fit, we also joined a gym this month. So, we've been spending an hour or two there each day after I'm done with work. It eats up a lot of time, but it makes us feel much better. So far I've lost about 10 pounds, which is great. Here I'll be honest with you - I started off weighing 175! That's not at all where I want to be. I've gained about 20 pounds since we got married in 2009 and I want to get that all back off and more. If I get into the 140s, I'll weigh what I did in high school, and I hope that I can get down that far. Our gym is really fantastic and so far we've really enjoyed going there. :) So - here's a LARGE goal, to get down to at least 155 by May when we leave for our vacation. I really hope I'll be able to revise that number as we go along. So far, so good!

I filled in at another office over the weekend, so I didn't have a Saturday to do any crafting. I'm also hosting a couple friends this weekend and throwing a bridal shower for my great friend Heidi. She's getting married in May (another reason to work out!!!) and I've been busy getting ready for that too. The shower is on Sunday this weekend and Saturday will be dedicated to running lots and lots of needed wedding errands since the bride now lives in Florida and this is the last time she'll be up in Wisconsin before the big day. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Despite all of that, I have managed to do a couple little things with the few minutes I have at night before I collapse in bed.

I started knitting a scarf for my other friend coming up for the weekend. I hope, hope, hope I can get it done! And, now I'm not sure it's going to be very cold any more for her to need it. But, she was joking about how she wasn't going to be able to handle the cold Wisconsin weather and I joked that I'd make her a scarf, and then actually did it. Now I just need to finish it!! It kind of reminds me of the flying geese quilt block pattern since it has a pyramid shape in the knitting pattern. It goes pretty quick, so I'm going to knit, knit, knit tonight and hope I can get close to finishing!

I also played around with some embroidery. I've never really done it before, and I made an awful first attempt. I made this flower embroidery. I used pencil to draw on the pattern. That was my first mistake since I couldn't get rid of the marks and then had to adjust the pattern as I went to cover them up. I hate the shape of the petals and I hate that I filled in the petals, but I had to cover up those stupid pencil marks! Ick! I kept this only because it was so bad I needed to see where I started and hopefully I'll improve from here!

I don't mind the stem and the leaves, but oh my gosh the whole flower should just be ripped out or thrown away. I think I'll hang it over my sewing machine space so I can have the motivation to get better. :)

The next attempt went much better. I made an owl sitting on a tree. I really like the wood grain that I did and I like that I gave it a circular border around the whole design. I also like these cute little leaves on it. So, hopefully my next attempt will be even better. I need to learn some more stitches so I can be a little more creative!

So - that's what I've been up to so far. As far as other February goals, I'd really like to finish my Over the Rainbow quilt this month. It's still sitting on my sewing desk, all pinned and ready to be quilted, so I'm so close to finishing! I think that will be the only other thing I plan to do in February. Hopefully March will be more crafty! Happy crafting everyone!