Update

Once again, keeping this blog updated has not worked out. Here's some of the crafts I completed in the past few weeks.


This is not quite done yet. I still need to get some photos of Chip and me printed and added to this chipboard album (covered in scrapbook paper).

This is a set of cards I made. It will be a gift for someone, for something :).

One of these will be a gift (for my soon to be 2 yr. old nephew who loves trucks) and the other one is currently displayed in my living room :).



I also did a bunch of pages in my doggie scrapbook but I don't have any really good pics.


As far as weight loss, I have been losing about a pound a week! Yeah! Easter set me back a bit, but I am back on track now :). I also started including spin classes in my workouts.


On the homefront, my garden is going sorta strong. Some stuff is growing and some stuff I am restarting indoors again. Here's a picture of my squarefoot garden when I first made it.

Chip and I also spent some time 2 weekends ago redoing the landscaping in the front of the house. We took out some dead plants and put in easy to maintain plants. Once they grow a bit, they'll be even better.

This was the before picture. (We had already removed the really dead bush when I took this picture). Chip and I hosted Easter dinner this past Sunday. Our friends DJ and Sara from Baltimore came down to visit. So, of course, they were there, as well as Katie and Eric and Alicia and Mike. It was the first time I used the China I got when my grandparents died. Here's the table all set up.

And.... I am thisclose to being done with painting all the trim in the house white! I just need one more coat on half of the kitchen (by the windows). I will finish that this week. Once Chip finishes his small part (the crown molding in 3 rooms), I will post pics! Yay!

Paper Bag Albums

Here's some pics of the albums I made as gifts for Mike and Meghan McG. and Shawn and Rachel H.. I went up to Maryland over Valentine's Day weekend and delivered the gifts. The girl album is for M&M since they are about to have a baby girl named Emma later this month. The boy album was for S&R for their son Luke's 1st bday.

Catching up

Wow. I have been bad about posting. I will try to improve that, but no promises. I have however, really been keeping up on my goals for 2009! Every one of them!

Weight Loss
In mid-February, I helped start the group, Dieting Divas, at school. It is our own weight watching/healthy lifestyle group. Each Friday, we all weigh in and then meet after school and discuss what helps us with weight loss and different healthy living topics. In February, 25 people participated and all 25 lost weight.

Although I am not thrilled with my progress, many people are telling me I am doing exactly what I should be. I have been going to the gym 6-7 days a week (starting this week I am taking more breaks to make sure I don't overdo it) and following WW points. I am now journaling more and cutting some of my carbs to help.

Here's my gym schedule and approx. how many calories I burn at each activity according to my HR monitor.

• Sunday: Body Pump (250-300 calories) plus 20-30 min. cardio (200ish calories)
• Monday: break day
• Tuesday: PAC class (500-550 calories)
• Wednesday: Heavy weights and Body Attack (500-550 calories)
• Thursday: PAC class (500-550 calories)
• Friday: off most weeks
• Saturday: Basketball and/or 30 min. PAC (350ish calories) and Body Combat (500-550 calories).

The House

I am DONE painting the moldings for the entire upstairs and the downstairs hallway. In the next few weeks I will start on the other downstairs rooms. I also bought the paint for the hallways and the gues bedroom. I came up with a color scheme and decorating ideas for the guest bedroom too!

This weekend, we also did some work on the yard. Chip helped me with my gardening goals by building my box for my square foot garden (http://www.squarefootgardening.com/) and I cleaned up some of the mess from the previous owners. I also started some seeds in my mini greenhouse.

Crafts

I went to a 12 hour scrapbook crop last weekend and a crop at Melissa's house a few weeks ago. I have finished 3 paper bag albums (two baby ones as gifts for Mike and Meghan and Shawn and Rachel and 1 summer themed album fr me). I have also created some crafts for around the house and as other gifts. Oh, and I finished my wedding album and started working on my doggie album. I will do a thread soon for some of my albums I made.

Bathroom update

Well, it's been a while since I wrote last. I have been working on some house projects. Little by little the past few months, I have been trying to update our master bathroom. Now, I am pretty much done, aside from a few small things, that are not going to be a priority for a while. See some before and after pictures of the bathroom below.

My next big undertaking will be painting all the interior moldings of our house white. They are currently wood colored, and they bother me. I have wanted white since we bought the house. A couple weeks ago, we got an estimate from someone for $2500 to paint them. So, I gave up on the idea once again. Then, late Friday night, I was cleaning up our guest room and noticed all the paint on the moldings (done by previous owners). I decided I really wanted to paint the moldings and would do it myself... little by little. I started with the bathroom. I am doing our bedroom next and working across the upstairs and then downstairs. It will be a long process.

Anyway, here's our bathroom pics (sorry some of them are sideways... I need to figure out how to fix that). I am still planning to work on the windows (new blinds and/or new fabric curtains of some sort), a new faucet (already have it... waiting for Chip to install it), painting the doors, and doing something to make the big mirror look better.



Before (when we were looking to buy the house)

Before (walls painted dark brown on the tub wall and vanity painted brown... see above pic for original color)

After:

Christmas Wreath

I have been obsessed with making this project since I read about it. As soon as ornaments were 75% off at Walmart, I bought a bunch of them for my 2009 decorations. However, I couldn't wait to make this. You can find the directions here.

Here's my finished product. I am pretty excited about it.



While I am still motivated, and before I pack the Xmas stuff away completely, I plan to make our new Xmas stockings too! I hope to get that done next weekend.

Resolutions

I have a few big resolutions for 2009. It is a big year for me since I turn 30 and will celebrate my 1 year wedding anniversary.

1) Fit by 30. I want to lose 30-40 lbs. by the time I turn 30 in October. However, I'd like to lose 20 by the time school lets out and it is beach season. In order to reach this goal, I will continue going to the gym 4-5 times a week, but will work harder while I am there. I will also walk the 2 mile loop around our neighborhood more often (with the dogs of course). In addition, I am trying to eat healthier, which leads to my next resolution.

2) Cook healthy and more often. I'd like either Chip or me to cook dinner 4-5 times a week and then have leftovers for some of the other meals. I plan to accomplish this by cooking in the crockpot a lot. One of my favorite blogs to read is http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/. I have tried a number of her recipes and hope to try many more. She's inspired me :).

3) Be more crafty. I just finished my craftroom and my desk (made by Chip) should be done this week. I can't wait to get to work finishing my wedding scrapbook (another goal of the year) and working on other paper and fiber crafts. To inspire me, I am in a few crafty meetup groups and constantly look for fun ideas on blogs and scrapbooks, etc.

4) Be better to myself. I plan to spend more time relaxing (taking baths) and I hope to spend less time scouring the Internet out of boredom. This resolution kinf of links to my other 3 because being fit and healthy is being better to myself. Also, crafting is something I enjoy doing, so that's being better to myself.

So, I hope next year at this time, I am still blogging and I will remember to come back and be able to say I accomplished my resolutions for 2009.

About Me

I figured if you're going to read my blog, you might as well know a bit about me. My name is Stacy and I was born and raised in central, NJ. I went to college at Towson University, just outside Baltimore, Maryland. My major was mass communications and advertising but after a little while in the field, I went back and got my Masters degree in Education. After college I stayed in the Baltimore area and eventually met my husband, Chip. We finally got married after almost 4 years of dating, in March 2008. At the same time, Chip's company offered us a relocation package we couldn't pass up. So, during the summer of 2008, we officially moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia. We bought a house and have been doing little things to fix and update it. Now, I teach fifth grade in Virginia Beach. Overall, we're very happy in our new home and state :).

Two of the most important things in my life are my dogs. I got Zoe in May 2005 (she was 1.5 years old) from the SPCA. She is a miniature dachshund. Then, in April 2007, we adopted Jake (now 2 years old) from another shelter. He's a golden retriever/collie mix. I never had dogs growing up, so once I decided to get one, I spent a lot of time and energy researching breeds, training, etc. If you know me, you know how important my dogs are to me :).

Zoe on her fifth birthday. She loves committing stufficide to her squirrel.



This is Jake on the 2nd day we had him. He keeps that one ear up 95% of the time :).