April Block Finish

I finished the April block for the Sugar Block Club, and I really like it. Don’t you love the orange deer print? It’s from Momo’s Oh Deer line from Moda. So cute!

This was a paper pieced block and it went really quickly. I live how Amy (the pattern designer) includes instructions on what size to cut the fabric for the piecing. That way there isn’t a lot if wasted fabric.

Now I’m off to work on some other projects and hopefully get my closet organized. I was hoping to pack away my winter stuff but we are expecting more snow and cold on Monday and Tuesday. I won’t complain though because we need the moisture.

I also started Crossfit this week. My husband and I signed up for intro classes and we have finished the first three if six before we can move into the regular classes. I’m really loving it! It’s challenging and fun and constantly changing so it doesn’t get boring. Between that and running and eating clean, I’ve lost 7 lbs in two weeks! Yay!

Well I hope you have a great Saturday. I’m going to get out and enjoy the near 70 degree temps. I’ve even busted out my shorts for today.

Happy Crafting!
E

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Happy April!

Wow!  I can’t believe we are already in the throes of April!  It’s crazy.  I have been enjoying the beautiful spring weather here in Denver, but sadly, there is a winter storm making its way into the state.  Ugh.  We are supposed to get a decent amount of snow, which would be fantastic if we get a snow day out of it.  We haven’t had one snow day all year.  We did get a delay back in February, but I had jury duty that day, so I missed out.  Come on snow day!

Meanwhile, until the icky coldness arrives, I have been enjoying the great outdoors.  I started up my running routine again, and am pretty proud of the 10+ miles I ran this week.  Quite a feat for not running for months, except for a rare day here and there.  I have also given up sugar.  Which, I won’t lie, was really hard.  I haven’t added any sugar or any kind of sweeteners for that matter to my coffee all week.  It was a little hard to get used to, but by this morning my coffee with fat-free half and half tasted just fine to me.  Funny how your taste buds adjust so quickly.  I would guess that if I added some sugar to my coffee, it would taste horribly sweet now.  It’s a good change.  Along with running and eating really clean (home prepared salads for lunch, protein and steamed veggies for dinner, and my normal Fage plain Greek yogurt with berries – no agave or honey), I have lost over 4 pounds this week.  I’m pretty impressed with myself.  Yay!

I am loving my lunch salads.  I make them the night before or sometimes the morning of.  They are really pretty easy.  They are pretty much a take off the whole mason jar meal trend, but I don’t have any mason jars, and I don’t need any.  I just use my plastic containers to build my salads.  You build them from the bottom up.  First you start with your salad dressing (unless you want to put that in a separate container – I use little tiny plastic cup thingys).  After that, you add your protein, chicken, steak, fish, etc.  Then layer in a lot of colorful veggies.  I love bell peppers, cucumbers (English so you don’t have to peel them), cherry tomatoes (no chopping involved just throw them in!), radishes, celery, sugar snap peas, etc.  You can even add some fruit like berries or apples.  Yum!  Want some nuts in there?  Add them in.  Hard boiled egg, slice them up and put them in too.  Then when you are done, just put your lettuce on top and pop on the lid.  Voila!  Salad ready to go.  Healthy, delicious, and the envy of everyone in the lunch room when you flip it over onto a plate at lunch time.  Try it this week!  There are so many ways to switch it up, and it doesn’t take long to make at all.  If you want you can prep most of your meat and veggies on Sunday and then make up a few days worth of salads to grab and go. 

Yummy Salad Fixings

Finished Salads Ready To Eat!

This week, I’m planning on cooking up some chicken, stir fry beef strips, and mini shrimp for different salad takes.  Just make sure that you get some good dressing!  You are eating healthy so you can add in a bit more flavor with a really good dressing.  I love the Brianna’s line.  Two of my faves are the Blush Wine Vinaigrette and the French Vinaigrette. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Hugs,

Moving…thoughts.

This weekend I am moving.  Not far, only about 7 miles, but any move is stressful and lots of work.  Thankfully, the weather should be nice on Saturday, which is great because right now it is snowing like crazy!  I have been working little by little to get things packed and cleaned so that we don’t have to rush around getting everything packed before the movers arrive.  Yes, we have movers helping out because we are moving to a third floor unit and there is no elevator, and it seems that nowadays just the mention of “moving” has people scrambling like rats on a sinking ship.  No one wants to help people move anymore.  What happened?  I have helped so many people move over the years.  Oh well.  I am actually looking forward to having the movers because I wasn’t looking forward to moving heavy boxes and furniture up three flights of stairs.  So, I have been working to move all of the boxes that I have packed down to our garage to make the loading of the truck faster, thus less expensive. 

It’s funny, I have packed 90% of our townhouse and the amount of space in the garage that I have filled up is so SMALL!  I must have done a really efficient job packing and purging.  I got rid of a lot of stuff!  Anything that we hadn’t used (aside from heirlooms) since we moved a year ago, I donated.  We had quite a bit of stuff that we haven’t touched.  I figure if we haven’t used it in 12 months, we won’t miss it!

So, now I am thinking about design and decor for our new place.  There are a lot of windows, and our unit faces West, which I am super excited about!  Our current unit is north/south facing, with most of the windows on the north side.  We get some light, but I LOVE sunlight from the west.  You get sunsets and warm afternoon sun.  I am getting really excited about the prospect of decorating a new place.  We are allowed to paint, yay!  So I’m still trying to decide what level of painting commitment I want to make, since we will have to paint over it eventually when we move again.  Not for a few years.  

 

I am also looking at vinyl wall decals.  I saw this idea on Pinterest and am in love!  I am thinking of getting gold and navy blue circles.    They are 2″ in diameter and I want to put them in a similar pattern, like confetti falling from the ceiling.  I think it will look really cool trailing down the walls in our living room.  I also LOVE the console in this particular shade of coral, which is the same shade I posted a few days ago.  It’s called coral gables.  LOVE!  Well, that’s enough for today.  Gosh I wrote a lot!  I hope you all are having a great week out.  Wish me luck with my move. 

Hugs,