Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 35

It is Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 35 and this week I lost 1 lb. for a running total of 36 lbs. Hooray! I keep chugging along and still hope to reach my goal of atleast 52 lbs. by the end of the year which is 1 lb. per week.

I did good on my eating except for on the weekend. Mom and Dad were here and I always have to make her cook a little. French Toast before church Sunday morning was definitely not a weith watchers recipe!

I squeezed in a good amount of exercise last week, but I have not done so well in the past few days. I am gonna have to get back in gear tomorrow. I already have Daisy's leash ready for in the morning!

As for this week's recipe, I am gonna share the "Big Shake". I found this on a Weight Watchers discussion board a while back, and it is great. You can make it and sip on it for a long time. That little trick makes me feel full much longer. This recipe is very versatile, but calls for DaVinci syrup. If you have never tried this stuff, you have not lived! It is available at Wal-Mart in the coffee aisle, and Target carries it too. You can find a larger selection online, and it is a little pricey but worth every cent. I only have Sugar-free Vanilla, but am gonna try German Chocolate Cake next.

3 Point "Big Shake"

1 cup FF milk

2 Tbsp. FF SF Jello Pudding Mix (any flavor as long as it's FF and SF)

10-12 ice cubes

1 tsp. DaVinci Sugar-free Syrup or vanilla extract

3 Tbsp. water (I only do this if the shake is getting too thick for me!!)

Put in blender for at least 2 minutes to chop ice up. Poor into BIG glass and enjoy! It makes somewhere around 3 cups for 3 points. Another variation was to use Cheesecake flavored pudding and I put in 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries. It tastes like a big muffin for 3 points.

I hope all my Weight Watchers buddies had a great week, and I look forward to hearing your progress!

Sassy Pillows...

It is DIY Day at ASPTL and I have missed a couple of weeks, but I am finally gonna get my groove back! I have been in the mood to sew lately, and have jumped on the "ruffle" bandwagon that is going around the blogosphere. Here are a few pillows I whipped up last week:


I think the ruffles make them so stinkin' cute. I especially love the way the Cowboy one turned out. Here it is sitting in Walker's chair in his western room. That quilt behind it was made by my great grandmother. Ok, I'm a LITTLE sentimental. Here is a blue and brown color scheme. I just love this paisley print.
I backed it entirely in the paisley.
And of course a pillow to go in the chair I am working on.

It is also backed in the print material.

Don't you just love a project that is quick and easy? I do. I guess that's why I love to make pillows!

Busy Bee...

I'm still here. I know, it's been a while! Last week when I posted Weight Watchers Wednesday on Saturday I felt terrible for being so behind. Well, this week is over and I have not posted since Tuesday. I will do better. I promise! So, just in case you are curious about what we have been so busy doing, here is a quick update.

Weight Watchers Wednesday... I lost .5 lb. for a running total of 35.2 lbs. Very happy with the progress and at this rate I should be able to hit 52 lbs. by the end of the year (1 lb. a week).

Lonnie got inducted into his high school's Football Hall of Fame on Friday night, and we had company for the weekend. Here are a couple pics from Friday.

Here we are below his plaque.

I was just as proud as a peacock of my hubby. He is a very humble person, but this honor is saved for a select few and he was so honored they chose him.

I went Saturday morning to a huge community yard sale in Bluffton (right outside Hilton Head) with my mother in law and a couple friends. We had a great time and scored some great deals. I'll share those on Tuesday!

I somehow managed to talk Lonnie into helping me with one of my projects this afternoon. While Connor LOVES tools and helping Mom with her projects...
He looks like such a little monkey with his goggles on pushing down his ears!
Lon is not such a fan. He was a good sport about it though, and we managed to get started on my old door transformation. We are trying to turn it into a corner shelf, but when we started cutting it it started falling apart. I guess there is a reason it was free. We are making some progress and I am not one to give up, so I will post about it later this week when I finish it.

I hope you have had a wonderful week and I hope to be catching up with all my blogging soon, so much to share with you!

Deals and Steals...

I have been doing a lot of junking in the past few months, and scored lots of odds and ends but always hesitate to post my finds until I have actually done something with them. (I'm just weird like that.) I'll show you a couple of things this week, and the rest next week. I started off with all of this stuff, for $4.

I spray painted the vase white, and another candleholder I had white, and put those funny globes on top of them. For now they are holding seashells that we got at the beach this year, but they will probably hold candles eventually.

I love them on my beach picture wall in the craft room/office.

The only thing I paid more than .50 for was this basket, and it was $1. It's new home is on Walker's bedside table. It holds all of the library books we have checked out so that they don't get mixed up with the boys' other books.
Originally I was gonna paint it, but decided I liked the chippy red finish and it goes great with Walker's cowboy themed room.

So there you have it, my deals and steals for the week. I am gonna share these over at Reinvented for Trash To Treasure Tuesday and Poppies at Play for Creative Cats. Stop by over there if you have a chance. I am always amazed by other bloggers' creativity!

Progress...

I have been working steadily on several projects lately, and I thought I would share my progress on a few of them.

I went back to the Thrift store the day after I finished Connor's chair (here is the link if you missed it) and got Walker one for $3, but I just got it painted last week. Here it is:

I also had a baby shower this weekend, so I made a few goodies for that. A burpcloth, onesie, and little giraffe toy.

In all this crafty goodness, Connor asked me to make him an owl. I don't know why, but together this is what we came up with:

And I have been spray painting up a storm, but none of those projects are complete yet. Just when I think I am making some headway I look in the garage and see the other 20 things I still have to work on, but who am I kidding? I love my little projects!

Dollar Tree Topiaries...

I finally got around to using some of my Dollar Tree stuff that I bought months ago for a topiary. I had such a good time making this little beauty that I decided I needed to make a couple more, but when I went back my store no longer had the foam balls. If yours does I suggest you run over there and snatch them up because they are a heck of a deal at $1. Even when Hobby Lobby marks them half off they aren't this cheap. ANYWAY, back to the task at hand.

Here are the supplies you will need. All of which I got at the Dollar Tree (except my glue gun).

• 2 Foam balls


• Spanish or Green Moss


• Small Pot


• Floral Foam


• Dowel rod


• Hot glue

Quite simply, line up your balls, slide them on your painted dowel rod, and slowly cover the foam balls with glue and moss a small section at a time. When they are all covered, insert the dowel rod into the foam form and then glue it in place and add moss to the top of the pot. I added some embellishments I had on hand like ribbon and a bird's nest, but this literally cost me $5 and it is so stinkin' cute.

I am gonna try to make some Christmas topiaries this year, but this is all I had on hand. I wanted to give you all the heads up on this deal in case you find them in your stores. Happy bargain hunting!

Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 33

It is Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 33 (actually Saturday, oops!) and this week I had a loss of .3 lbs. That brings my total loss to 34.8 lbs. I have resorted to counting decimals, but it was a loss so I thought I would share it.

It has been a very stressful week, and Walker has been wanting to do some baking. For the first weekend in a long time we are not going to the river, so we decided to tackle a Chocolate Peanutbutter Cake that I have had on the brain. I've been wanting to try it since Aunt Wendi told us about it, but have been good. I finally cracked! Walker helped me with it and can I just tell you it is to.die.for! I will spare you the recipe since this is Weight Watchers Wednesday, not "blow your diet Wednesday", but if you want the recipe let me know and I'll post it later. I had one small piece and it hit the spot, so now I will be trying to push it off on family and friends to get it out of the house fast.

My exercise buddy and I have been on opposite schedules a lot lately, so I have resorted to exercising with a new partner, Walker. He is not quite as coordinated as Mary, but he makes me laugh through the whole work out, and that makes it go by pretty quickly.

Walker has been such a little trooper at school, so I wanted to do something special for him. He decided he wanted me to watch a movie with him, so we decided together to make it a "Campout" in the family room and pitch a tent made out of sheets. We had all the lights out and played with flashlights. I watched his little movie beginning to end, with out doing laundry or loading the dishwasher, etc. and it was such a relaxing evening. I have got to learn to be more present and that so much of what I stress over can wait. Baby steps people, baby steps.

For the recipe this week I am gonna tell you how I make one of our family favorites lighter. All 3 of my guys LOVE Sloppy Joes and french fries. Not the most diet friendly food, right? Well I have altered it and they have no idea and because it is still delish. I use whole wheat buns, ground turkey instead of hamburger, and then bake the french fries. I also buy the Sloppy Joe spice packet and tomato paste seperately insead of buying it pre-mixed because it is less calories that way. Your exact point total will vary according to the buns you choose and the quality of turkey, but I can make this meal for 8 pts. a person and it really tastes the same. That is cutting the calories and fat by almost half, and whether you are a person that watches your weight or not, that is a good change!

Productive Weekend...

We had a very productive and relaxing weekend at the river. Productive and relaxing are not often used in the same sentence, but that is truly the way it was. When we are at the river relaxation is mandatory, I mean look at this view off our back porch.

That is Mama working in our little pool. We swim here more than in this river canal. We have seen a couple gators there lately.

We dabbled on Saturday, which leads me to the productive part. My father in law Jerry was refinishing a $10 flea market bench for my mother in law, so I brought a couple of my projects over to have him help me. Jerry is a carpenter, and I soaked up everything he was saying like a little sponge.

We broke out my new sander, a flea market find a couple of weeks ago. It is $70 at Lowe's, but I got it brand new for $20. SCORE!

My chair was a steal at $5. Jerry had some extra wood and put me a seat on there. He then taught me about wood putty and I got busy sanding.

The boards were from the farm, and I had Jerry cut them for me so I could have them to do something with later. I am not sure what yet, but Connor helped me sand them and then said "I'm gonna build you a big house Momma." Well if my little man wants to use that salvaged board to start on a house for his momma so be it. Look at that filthy face!

Here is how Sandy's bench and my chair looked when we finished Saturday.

I have since added some more paint and a skirt that I made for it out of some fabric my fabulous sister gave me. I am in love with this little chair!

How was your weekend?

Cow Poke Shower Curtain...

I have been gradually working on several little projects here and there, and I am finally finishing a few of them. The boys' shower curtain is one of them.

Here is how this came together. I started out with a plain shower curtain from Wal-Mart. I then took some white fabric and had it embroidered with the boys' initials. I sewed the white fabric onto the shower curtain, and added some buttons and yo-yo's to make it a little more fun.

Finally, I added a ruffle at the bottom because it was shorter than I wanted. I picked out this adorable cowboy print at Hobby Lobby because it had red-head and blonde haired cowboys, and that reminded me of my 2 boys. Since it is in their bathroom, it seemed like a good choice.

I am happy with it and think it is so cute. It was relatively inexpensive. I probably have $20 and a couple hours of my time. The boutique shower curtains I looked at were $80 and up. What do you think of my take on it?

Recovered Ottoman, Take 3...

I have this ottoman that I got at Target dirt cheap a couple of years ago. I made it over in May (if you missed that post, go here). Here is how it looked as a fake leather storage cube:

Then I did this:

Finally I did this:
But since I still wasn't crazy about it, Connor and I did this last week:

I got the newest fabric on the top in the remnant bin at Hobby Lobby for a couple dollars.

I like it so much better now. What do you think?