Weightloss Update Week #4-7

I have been neglecting blog posts lately.   Its not because I don't have anything to write about, Life has just been busy. Here are the weightloss updates for the last couple of weeks:

Week # 4 - lost 3.9 lbs weight - 188.1
Week #5 - lost 2.8 lbs weight - 185.3
Week # 6 - lost 1.8 lbs weight - 183.5
Week #7 - lost 2.4 lbs weight - 181.1

Total weight loss so far:  -17.3 lbs

I am so excited, the size 16 pants and XL shirts have been boxed, size 14 are really loose and large shirts fit without buldging.  Next goal is size 10 little black dress for christmas.......Ultimate goal is single digit (8, 6) sizes and Medium shirts.  Wohoo shopping at cute boutiques!

I have noticed in the last week it has been really hard to get my minimun prescription in.  I have been slacking on my shakes.  Weekends are the hardest as it is not structured.

We learned how to make oatmel cookies, chicken soup crackers, snickers pudding, and FRENCH FRIES.  I no longer crave Mc Donalds.

Get Those Creative Juices Flowing....Day 1-3

I am currently taking Amy Tangerine's Online class "Get Those Creative Juices Flowing...." and loving it! The first day of class we learned how to make our creative journals.   I purchased the kit for the class, so I had an Amy T original.  But now i know how to make my own and i have pulled aside a few scraps of my favorite papers.

The second day focused on washi tape......my new addiction.   I don't own any right now but i have a few rolls on order from ginko papers.  Amy did show us how to make our own using masking tape and sharpie markers.   I am a doodler so this was so much fun.   Here are my custom washi tapes.

Day three focused on hand stitching words on layouts.  I always wonder how Amy did this.  Since i will be using my creative journal for trying out the techniques in class, I stitched the title on the cover.  I think it came out so cute.  I did learn a couple of things with this exercise.  One, draw the letters bigger than you think and two, space out my holes more.

Can't wait for day four!

Happy 24th Kimberly

My sister turned 24 this past friday (oct 1st).  Happy Birthday Kimberly.  Here is the card I made her:

Supplies: American Crafts: Sweet Tooth Dimensional Remarks Stickers (42113), Remarks Porter Aqua (42613), Georgia Lavender (42618),  Tri-fold Card White (71380)

Weekend Wrap Up and Upcoming Classes

It's been a busy week around my house.  The Roomate and I have been de-stashing and re-arranging the craft room.  We spent all day Saturday moving stuff out the room and make "keep", "donate", and "ebay" piles in the kitchen and re-arranging furniture.  I purchased four more modular storage cubes from Michaels last friday at 50% off and then an additional 15% off.  Gotta love coupons!  Since the Roomate had to study on Sunday, I enlisted Isabelle as a helper.  We managed to get alot done till the wall shelving unit decided to come crashing down on top of me.  Luckly, Isabelle was in the kitchen dancing.  We then spent the rest of the day creating my own clip-up system using a curtian rod and rings.  Over 75 packages of AC thickers, remarks and stamp sets were hung.  Later in the day, the pegboard(to which the curtain rod is attached at the bottom) fell off the wall also.  Shelf and pegboard have been put aside till the Roomate's BF comes over to hang it "properly" for me.  Before and After pictures to follow in a later post once the room is complete with detailed organization solutions.

Although I did not get any layouts done for May Flaum's "Use Your Stash" class a BPC( now Big Picture Classes), I will count this weeks organization accomplishments.  I was able to get together four printer paper boxes full of "to ebay" scrapbooking stuff.  Look for a later post with links to my ebay store.  I have tons of AC products, page kits, embellishments to match and grab bags.  All stuff will be shipped in flat rate boxes, so the more you buy the more i can stuff in the boxes.

"Use Your Stash" class ends tomorrow and I am quite sad.  I haven't accomplished my goal of 20 layouts (5 per week) but I did get a list together of layouts I would like to make.  I have been working on a Scrap Planner to go along with my Scrap Notes Notebook. The planner has sections for calendars to hold upcoming classes and crops, Project Lists, Page Planners, and Inventory.  I love my Scrap Notes Notebook for jotting down found ideas and class notes, but i needed and more organzied system with tasks and lists.  Once its complete, I will post pictures and details about it section.

On to upcoming classes.....

On Thursday, two more classes from BPC will start.  Donna Downey's "Fun with Fabric", which i won a spot in from Big Pictures Blog and Jen Molher's "Saving Your Santity: Throughout the Holiday Season".

Since I didn't have to pay for the "Fun with Fabric" class (priced at $99 and registration is still open), I was able to spend the money to order some the needed supplies and kits.  There are 10 projects total, but i can't afford the supplies for all ten at once.  I did purchase the "pretty ladies" kit and the basic canvas apron.  I will defintly be following along with those two lesson during the class and will pick up the rest of the supplies over the next couple of months.  I love how BPC classes have forever access to instructions. 

Jen Molher's class is going to help me prepare for the upcoming holiday season.  I hope to get out of it, some new ideas for holiday organzation, home decor and page layouts.

Later in the month Two more classes from BPC begin along with Amy Tangerine's first online class (So excited about this).

Georgana Hall's "Cut the Crazy Out of Christmas" runs from 10/14-11/10.  This class produces a Christmas binder to help with the craziness during christmas time.

Elisha Snow's "Get Great Photos with Any Camera" runs from 10/28 - 11/24.  This class is geared toward beginner photographers to learn the basics using any type of camera.  I am hoping to learn how to use some of the settings on my SLR besides Auto.

If you would like to sign up for any of the Big Picture Scrapbooking classes please do so using this link for refer a friend:

Registration Code: 25865ABE - or - Link: http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/register.php?refer=25865ABE

Here's how it works:


Give your friend the Registration Code below (or send themm the URL) and tell them to enter it in the "Refer-A-Friend" box when creating their account. Once your friend has purchased his or her first class, you'll both receive a code for 10% off** your next order!


One of my favorite American Crafts' Desgin Team Members, Amy Tangerine, is holding her very first online workshops this month.  "Get those creative juices Flowing" runs from 10/11 - 10/22.  The class is priced at $27 and you also have the option of buy the kit for a total of $45.  Amy recently posted pictures of some of the goodies in the kit and it is so worth so much more than the actual price.  You get a orginial one of a kind Amy T "Handsewn" notebook, washi tape and other neat items.  I so can't wait for the kit to arrive and this class to start.

Most of these classes will run through the month of November and "Fun with Fabric" continues into December.  In January I will be attending my first Scrapbooking Weekend crop with the lovely ladies from Scrap Mania. 

Woo what a busy couple of months i have coming up.  I also have to find time to get the house decorated for fall and then christmas.  At least this year I will have help, just havn't informed the Roomate and her BF about it yet!

CCL XX Prepartion list

So I am very excited to say that I will attending my very first Scrapbooking Crop Weekend in January of next year.   I have signed up for Memory Mania"s (my LSS) Camp Crop Alot Weekend Retreat.

So many prepartions will need to be made.  Here is my list:

• Have my sketches organized on a binder ring
• Have my stamps into portable  usable binders
• Have 52 card pick up class completed to bring for inspiration
• Come up with a way to get all supplies and stuff to the crop
• Get pictures all organized and tagged.
• Figure out what supplies to bring along with what pictures

I also have decided to re-organize my scrap room to make it more functional.  My list:

• clear square bookshelves to only include scrapbooking supplies
• try to get all the supplies to fit on those shelves
• add an addition of a cutting, sewing maching, bind itall table to the corner
• Clear out items in stash that aren't going to be used
• Move holdiay decorations elsewhere

Weightloss Countdown Week #3

Week #3 officially started Tuesday, so I am a little behind on posting the update.  Here we go!  Week #2 wasn't as productive as I would have liked it to be.  I only lost .9 lbs bringing my total weightloss to 6.4.  I believe this was due to a number of factors.  One, there was two days last week that i fell "out the box".  I had a handful of cashews, which although calorie wise are bad, fat wise they are, and the salt retains water.  I will not do this again.....not worth the non-loss of weight.  Two, I tripled my PA(physical activity), before this program, I had one day of dance class. Now added to the day of dance class is at least 4 days of moderate intensisity walking.  So the added muscle as weight.  Three, it was a water retaining week of the month.

Forgeting my days out of the box, I did managed to make it 6 days meeting my minimun prescription of HMR foods.  The one day that I didn't was a day of working from home and I was really busy.  I made up the missed two shakes throughout the week with the pudding, so i did end up with my minimun prescription for the week.

The HMR coach has challenged me to have at some PA everyday of the week.   So far I haven't done it.  I had the dance PA on tuesday but no PA yesterday.  But I am going to attempt to get some in rest of the week.  I am also challenging myself to stay in the box all week.   That barely one pound loss was not worth the cashews.

HMR Weightloss Update - Week #2

So an update on my progress.  Had my second weigh-in and class today for the HMR Program.  I am proud to report that i have lost 5.5 pounds.   Wow, all in one week!  Because of Labor Day, class got pushed back a day.  I have to say I did not get my minimum prescription in each week.  I was short a shake four days. I also had only one day of physical activity.  I had the lowest PA score in the class.  I will do better this week.  So far I had dance class last night and Ashley, Chris and I walked 45 minutes tonight.  

Since there are two other people at work doing the program, we are going to make a point to walk around the campus at least once a day together.   Plus work has a Healthy Living challenge starting up on the 25th of this month that all three of us are going to sign up for as a team.  The Biggest Loser male and female will each get $1000.  What an incentive!  Enough to motivate me.  The program will last till May 14th.   This is plenty enough time for me to drop the original goal of 50 lbs and maybe more.  Wish me Luck!

Birthday Cards

Since my morning started off really early (3:00 am) due to work issues, I had to find a way to keep myself awake while babysitting the server jobs.  I created two birthday cards.  One is for my cousin's birthday shrimp boil later today.  She is turning 16!

Supplies: American Crafts "Teen" patterned paper, Remarks - Awesome Accents (42535), Journal Text (42533), Flair - Tunes (70014), Details - Fierce (78012), Thickers - Rockabye Leaf (42956), Making Memories Shimmer Alpha

The second is for a dear friend of mine's birthday on monday.

Supplies: American Crafts "Botanique" patterned paper - Evelyn (34868), Viola (34849), Betty (34866), Edith (34864), Greta (34847), Minimarks - Poppy Accents (43353), Orchid Copper (43350), Aster Phrases (43351), Elements - Pearl Brads (85231), Fieldhouse - Patterned Chipboard (77215), Paper (77216), Flair - Beauty (70035), Remarks - Finch (42569), Haute Ribbon - Glamour (87610)

Now off to get ready for the Party!

BPS Class: "Adventures in Scrapbooking: Use Your Stash" Week #1

Friday night I was able to get my long awaited halloween project completed.  I found the idea here: http://alydosdall.blogspot.com/2010/08/three-on-thursday-some-projects-and.html and knew this would be perfect for Halloween this year.

Supplies: American Crafts "Halloween" line of patterned paper, flair; Slice design card "Basics #1"

So I had a pretty crafty day today, despite having to work most of the morning.  In between waiting for server jobs to run I put together the Christmas wreath I am going to give to Miss Machita.

Supplies: The Paper Studio patterned paper, American Crafts Flair and dimensional stickers, random brads

I also managed to get four layouts done....

#1: "Cousins"

Supplies: Anna Griffin patterned paper, Artisan Tape, Cosmo Cricket - Ready Set Chipboard "Pink Oak", Prima Flowers - ELine Orange, Zva Creative - Pearls, American Crafts Precision Pens

KP's Sketchbook 2 - Sketch #1, LOM-People I Love

#2: "Isabelle"

Supplies: American Crafts "Dear Lizzy Enchanted" - patterned paper "Fashionable Peony" (35266), "Wonderful Alice" (35247), Premium Ribbon "Lovely" (89290), Remarks - Journal Bk1 CS1&3 (42504), Emma Bubblegum (42615), Georgia Lavendar (42618), Porter Aqua (42613), Thickers Daiquiri (42744), Elements Assorted Brads Dear Lizzy (85504), Cardstock, Thickers - Daiquiri (42744)

KP's Sketchbook 2 - Sketch #2, LOM-People I Love

#3: "USS KIDD"

Supplies: American Crafts Cardstock, Premium Ribbon (92199), Thickers "Dolce Charcoal" (42925), Elements Round Buttons Ash (82122), Metallic Marker Silver (62212)

KP's Sketchbook 2 - Sketch #5, Tatianna's Big Buddy Album

#4: "To: My Sister"

Supplies: American Crafts patterned paper "Dear Lizzy Spring" - "Flowering Fields" (35086), Speciality Paper Damask (35157), Remarks "Dear Lizzy" - Flutter Dimensional (42702), Frolic Accents (42705), Elements Metal Photo Corners White (85132), Thickers Lullaby Blush (42958), Poolside Vinyl (42872),  Maya Road Craft Envelope Rectangle (K1197)

KP's Sketchbook 2 - Sketch #6, LOM-People I Love

Hi I'm Christi and I have am a scrapbook shopaholic......

Below is the challenge to myself that I have posted on the BPS Use Your Stash class message board for the duration of the class( wow one whole month, gonna be tough!)

Beautifully Handmade e-books

While listening to the latest paperclipping roundtable discussion "Memory-Go-Round" they advertised a new collection of 3 e-books available from getitscrapped.com. 

The three books are“Beautifully Handmade” self-paced classes with Tania Willis.  Sold separately they are $20 a piece, but they are offering 20% off if you buy all three together and if you listen to the paperclipping episode they also give you instructions on how to get an additional 10% off.  They are auto-downloads after checkout, so I was able download and print them (i printed black and white, double sided to use less paper) and I will be stopping by kinkos to get it bound on my way home today.  While they were printing (over 300 pages), I was able to look through the lessons.  I can't wait to get home and start creating.

Weight-loss Countdown (week 1)

Today (Tuesday) started week one of my new weight-loss plan(officially with the food portion on wednesday).  I have enrolled in Our Lady of the Lake's Medically supervised HMR program.  Its a minimum of 13 weeks rapid weight-loss followed by 18 months of Maintenance.  It consist of a minimum 5 HMR meals (3 shakes and 2 entrees) and 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.  Wow that is a lot of food and its only the minimum.  I can eat as many more HMR foods I need to stay full.  The program also includes weekly behavioral modification and support meetings. My current weight is 198.4 lbs and my goal is 145 lbs.  So we are looking at over 50lbs.  Here is the before picture:

Phase 1 of the program will end the last week of November, which puts me right in line with Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the greatest shopping day of the year.  I plan to not buy any more clothes till this point.  That way i will have plenty of money put aside for a whole new wardrobe,  My reward to myself.

Why I post this you ask?  One of main things that drew me to this program is accountability.  I have to report in every meeting and this is just another way to keep myself on track.

Busy week along with the Weekend Recap!

OH what a busy week it has been and it's only Tuesday. 

Let's start off with a recap from the weekend.  My weekend started early on Friday at 1:00 pm (half-day from being on call).  I ran a couple of errands and grabbed some lunch on the way home.  At this point it was almost 3 pm and I had a lot to do before the Company/Faculty sleepover at the studio.  I finished up the gifts (from my sister and I), packed, showered and headed off to walmart for snacks.

The sleepover was for the Faculty, Company and Company Prep( they only stayed for the first two hours cause they are all pretty young) at the dance studio. The girls had a blast!  Activities included "Crazy Pajama Contest", drawing of Big/Little Buddies, "Toliet paper fashion show", Improv dancing, old dance comeptition videos and plenty of eating.  I think those kids ate non-stop for 12 hours.  All that candy is probably why most of them didn't crash till 7:00 Am the next morning.  Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep, so Saturday and Sunday was spent catching up.  I also spent most of sunday (after church and lunch) editing the iDVD project with all 300 photos from sleepover.  It's so cute.....now just have to make like 40 copies to hand out.

Monday was back to work, and boy did I have a lot of work to do.  Im in the middle of 3 major projects(one being due today by my 1:30 meeting).  But on to the more fun, crafty stuff.

I am taking Elizabeth Dillow's Inspiration Defined class at BPS.  I will admit, I am a little behind on the assignments but I did manage to get my tumblr account setup.  You can find me here: http://moleskineadventures.tumblr.com/

Elizabeth Katcher's Piece By Piece class started on monday.  So far we have only gotten an assignment to gather our supplies.  I was able to order two teas from downeastbasics.com but they haven't arrived yet.  I do have the rest of the supplie put asside in a basket, including the kit for the class where Elizabethe die cutted the cutest flowers and butterflies.  More pictures to come when i complete my shirt.

May Flaum's Adventures in Scrapbooking: Use Your Stash and BPS starts tomorrow.  I took May's Camp Scrap class a couple of months ago.  Althought I didn't get as much layouts done as I would like too,  I loved loved loved the class.  Can't wait for UYS to start.

I'm signed up for two more BPS classes: Jen Molher's Saving Your Sanity: Throughout the Holiday Season and Georgana Hall's Cut the Crazy out of Christmas.  They don't start till the end of September and beginining of October but I have been gather the supplie and completing the pre-class assignments.

Today also starts the beginning of the HMR weightloss program at Our Lady Of the Lake Hospital.  More on this with a separte posts.

Well plenty of things going on this week, plus I have a few crafty projects that i have started to prepare for the upcoming holiday season.  Oh and I REALLY need to clean my Craft Room, it looks like a war zone!

Craft To-Do List

Since I can't sleep cause I have a million and one things running through my mind, I decided to list them.   I tend to do better working off lists.  So my crafty To-Do list for the week:

1. Update American Crafts Inventory
2. Learn to use new Pixie sewing machine that finally came in
3. Miss Machita's christmas wreath
4. Tatianna's weekly card
5. slice hands-free kit
6. Michaels return
7. Hobby Lobby return
8. BPS inspiration defined assignment
9. print BPS class sheets
10. USS Kidd layout
11. print pics
12. finish California mini
13. organize craft room
14. ............

Weekend Wrap-Up

What a busy weekend I had!  I have to say it didn't start out to well.  At 3:30 pm on Friday my supervisor approached me with a task from the VP of our department.  Needless to say I had to understand the problem, the software and find a solution all before I planning on leaving at 4:30.  I didn't leave till almost 6:00.  Got the problem resolved and headed home, not before stopping at the grocery store to pick up the last minutes items I needed for Saturday's dinner party(more on the dinner party later).  I arrived home exhausted from the day, so I caught up on some weekly tv shows and then headed to bed.  

Saturday consisted on Big Buddy Event, some scrapbooking and dinner party with my family.

Tatianna and I attended the last August Big Buddy Activity.  We visited the USS Kidd.  It was fun but soooo hot!  Nothing like being on a big Steal ship that has been baking in the 100 degree heat all day.  The kids had a great time.  Nothing like see a little bit of local history.  Oh yeah it also helped the tour guide was really cute.  

After bringing Tatianna back home, and picking up some ice cream on the way.  I headed home to get ready for the Dinner Party.

Since the trip to the USS Kidd didn't last the two hours it was suppose too, I had a little extra time to get my crafty on before the prepping and cooking began.

I managed to get one layout accomplished.  Since October is approaching I decided to get the pictures from last year's Halloween scrapped.  This was our first time celebrating Halloween at Monte' Vista Plantation.  It was just a small family gathering with food and fun.  Since the house sits outside of city limits, I drove the kids back into my neighborhood to trick or treat.  Isabelle choose her own costume this year.  I thought should would choose the usual princess, witch, you know normal 8 yr old costumes.  No she decided not only to be Marie Antoinette but the ghost of Marie Antoinette.  

So she got dressed in this beautiful old time gown and wig then came down stairs with baby powder and black eye shadow.  I then preceded to smear the powder on her face and neck.  Then i smeared black eyeshadow circles around her eyes.  Noah on the other hand wore a glow in the dark pirate skeleton costume picked out by his mother.  

He huffed and puffed the whole time we went trick or treating. But I guess thats normal for an 11 yr old. After only 1 hour and four blocks we headed back home.   Isabelle ran off quickly and then came downstairs in the cutest halloween pjs.  

Sorry for the rambling back to my weekend.  Here is the layout!

Supplies: American Crafts "Halloween" patterned paper, Flair and Minimarks

Housed in LOM-Things I Do

5:00 rolled around and it was time to prepare for dinner.  I have to say i started two hours early and still didn't finish before everyone arrived.  No biggie, I prepared a feast.   Parmesan crusted chicken with a sage butter sauce, Bacon wrapped green beans, roasted garlic and rosemary potatoes, Mike Anderson's coleslaw and dinner rolls.  I love to cook but I will be starting a medial supervised weightloss plan on Aug 31st (more to come on that when i start the program) so I'll be cooking my favorite dishes till then.  There was ten of us total.  Everyone enjoyed it tremendously.

Sunday consisted of mass, lunch with the family at my favorite, Ninfas, a little shopping( I hit up the slice sale at Michaels), dance class, and more craft time.

Desirre Robbins was in town and taught a master class at Machita & Co.  Isabelle attended the hour and half long class and had a blast.  This is officially the start of competition season.

After I returned her home, I got my craft on again.  I finished up the paper flowered wreath I started on Friday night.  Im trying to get a head start on the holiday season decorations i never did last year.  My color scheme for christmas has always been the black, read, gold oriental style.  I think it came out really cute.

Supplies: The Paper Studio patterend paper - "Magic of the Season

Well thats my weekend, it was busy but productive......now onto the work week, blah!