Weigh In Wednesday

(ok ok I know technically it's Thursday, but I'm still awake so I'm calling it Wednesday! LOL)

This past week has not been good for me as far as the gym goes. Due to various other commitments that either I or my gym partners had, I only made it to the gym once. But I tried to be good about what I ate, so hopefully things won't look too bad tomorrow.

Short and sweet today, talk to you hopefully tomorrow.

Sheesh... (very wordy)

Time sure does fly. I had a rather busy weekend, with 3 birthday parties. They started on Saturday with a 9:30am party at Chuck E Cheese's. Although getting up that early was a pain (of course the fact that I couldn't sleep the night before and didn't go to bed until 4:45 didn't help any) BUT with a nice tall caramel latte from the bookstore next door, and lots of good friends the CEC party went well and the boys had a blast. Left there with just enough time to come home, wrap the 2nd present and take the youngest one back out. More good friends and a fun time was had by all. My workout buddy invited me and some other friends out for dinner and drinks to celebrate her birthday. Her wonderful husband played Designated Driver, so the 4 of us had a wonderful time! I made it home around 12:15 relatively sober. Stayed up talking to my husband online for about a hour before he laughingly told me to take my drunk butt to bed! (I am a stickler about typos, they drive me nuts. But Saturday night I just couldn't make myself care enough to correct them. In my head I KNEW they were wrong I just didn't care. lol) I am not normally a drinker, heck it's been months since I had a drink, probably when Donnie was home on R&R in July at his family reunion. But I had a grand time letting loose for a little bit. Thankfully I woke up Sunday morning in a wonderful mood with no hangover. =D About 2pm I picked up my 'house cleaner'. (my friends teen daughter comes and does some basic cleaning for me every 2 weeks) By the time I got back it was almost time to take Bradley to the final party of the weekend. Another fun party and fun time.

There I met an amazing photographer, that I will be having take loads of pics here soon. She does kids and family pics, weddings, babies, couples and boudoir pics. I've decided to have a shoot done for Donnie for Valentine's day!

Let's see on the creative front...um nothing going on really. I finally got the spray paint I need for the barbie furniture and appliances, but it's been too cold to work on them. I have a commission that I will be starting this week for a set of Winnie the Pooh characters for a 1/12th scale toy shop. But other than that I need to list some more of my Valentine's Day 1/6th scale miniatures in my etsy shop. Maybe tonight.

Well that's it in a nutshell. Y'all take care!

Wednesday Weigh In

Before the holidays I was doing really good hitting the gym 4 days a week. Then with the boys out of school for the holidays and then sick kiddos off and on for the last 2 weeks, today was the first day I got back into the gym in almost a month. And boy do I feel it. BUT it feels good! Hubby is due home from the Middle East sometime in April, soooo it's time for me to get my ass in gear. I have decided to join Marsha over at Sassy Mini Dolls for her Wednesday Weigh In. So I am startinf fresh today and going to put it all out there. I think this is the heaviest I've ever been and I am trying to get rid of it. I know it's not going to just melt away, and it's going to take work. I didn't get fat over night and it's going to take time for it to come off. I weighed myself today at the gym and at 255 I am NOT happy with the numbers which just convinces me even more to work harder at getting it off. More motivation is of course Donnie coming home. I would like to be able to find something really pretty to wear when he comes home but WILL be buying it in a smaller size!!!

Today at the gym we did 30 minutes on the treadmill...I did 8-10 of them at a incline of 4 and spent my time at between 3.3 & 3.5mph. I averaged a 17.5 minute mile. After that we did 5 sets up and down the stairs...I didn't count, but I think there are atleast 20. (those about killed me but I did them!) Then we moved on to the strength training part of our workout. Each day we work a different area of our body. Today we decided to do Chest. So we did 3 sets of Incline, Decline and Flat bench presses. Very little weight, but it felt good. The Decline ones always make me feel like I'm going to slip of the bench! LOL After that we did 3 sets each on several of the Chest machines. (sorry I can't remember what they were) It was definitely a workout but like I said I feel really good!

Thanks so much to Carrie and Rhonda, my workout buddies! I really appreciate you gals!!!

Well I gotta scoot...gotta hop in the shower and then run to the grocery store. Take care!

I've officially started... (wordy & picture heavy)

About 6 weeks ago I was approached by a friend about making a dollhouse for her twin daughters. They will be turning 7 in May. So I sat down with Mom & Dad and we came up with a relatively simple design. The dollhouse will be a 4 foot tall by 3 foot wide bookcase style dollhouse. There will be 3 floors and a rooftop patio. The 1st floor will be the living room & eat-in kitchen. Next level is the spa-style bathroom and den/rec room. The final floor will be a bedroom for each girl complete with canopy beds!

Since not only are the girls fraternal twins (one is blond the other brunette) but they also have VERY different personalities, I will be making their rooms similar but unique to each girl. B is a tomboy who loves the color purple and monkeys, while A is a girly-girl whose favorite color is pink and loves butterflies!

Both girls love Disney princesses, each has a unique favorite. B's is Snow White while A's favorite is Cinderella.

My intention is to create a dollhouse that blends both girls likes into a fun place for their dolls to play! My drawings are almost complete, and I will be heading to the home store in the early part of next week to buy my lumber and supplies. I will also me making a trip to the craft stores to check out scrapbooking papers for wallpaper. Although now that I think about it, I might have to check out the stationary and party stores instead. Each floor is going to be about 15inches high, and unless I want to do wainscoting (which I might do in a room or two) in the entire house...scrapbook paper is NOT going to cut it.

Tomorrow will be spent getting my kitchen table cleared off so that I have a place to start building. Although the dollhouse will live out in my Garage for a few weeks while I sand, paint and wallpaper. Then I will bring it inside to assemble. That way I can work on it inside where it's warm.

I initially hadn't intended to put true windows into the house, I had thought to make faux ones with scenery pictures on the inside looking out and pics of the interior of the house on the outside looking in. But I have a feeling that will be harder than I imagine...so I an going to reconsider putting real windows in. I'm building the frame out of 1/2 inch ply or MDF...so I will need to look into some kind of cutting tool that can do the interior cutting. ANY SUGGESTIONS???

On to the official start...one of the pieces Mom specifically asked for was canopy beds...I found a pair of this great bed on ebay. It wasn't until it arrived today that I realized in addition to the bed, was a pair of nightstands with LIGHTED lamps!!! The battery pack sits inside the nightstand and by twisting the lamp the little light turns on! I decided I want the lamps to look like the brass ones from my childhood. (I really MUST remember that enamel paints take WAY longer to dry than acrylics! LOL) I think I've smudged them atleast 4 times already.


I'm contemplating adding some gold trim and fringe to the lamp shade as well...right now it seems way to plastic-y for my liking. I am also thinking about a coat of matte spray paint to take the shine down a notch. I've only put one coat of gold on the lamp and already it looks 100 times better, all the neat details are actually coming out. Tomorrow (or atleast several HOURS from now) I'll add a second coat. I think it will also get a light antiquing too, but not certain.)
I also got another awesome furniture buy, but I think I will save those pieces for another day!
Have a great weekend!!!

Wet Wednesday

Urgh...can I just say that I dislike grey rainy days!!! I woke up to a steady drizzle of cold rain this morning. After getting the boys ready and driven to school I came home and got ready for the gym. Met my friend for a good workout. Today we worked our backs and did 30 minutes on the treadmills. I'm bummed cause I put back on the 10 pounds I had lost, BUT I didn't add anything to that. So it a bit of a victory, right? BUT I am determined to lose atleast 25 pounds between now and April 1st! (Hubby should be home in April some time.)

Zeus is doing much better today. He spent about 3 hours at the 'spa' and when I picked him up he was trimmed, shiny and smelled fresh! Yesterday morning he wasn't limping nearly as bad as he was Monday night and after having his nails trimmed he barely limped at all. today he is doing even better. So my theory was pretty much confirmed. He now has a standing monthly appointment for a Spa Day! =D Here he is chillin' on the folded 3rd row seat in the truck on the ride home from the Spa. He looks pretty comfy huh?


Nothing newly made today, but I'll share a couple pieces from over the weekend and earlier. First up is my version of a Rement piece (seen here!) Each of the blueberries and cherries was hand rolled. The pie is Barbie sized and made in a bottle cap 'tin'.
Up next is actually one of the first miniatures I made...it's a pizza with everything. I was intending it to be dollhouse (1/12th) scale, but at the time I didn't know how to do that size properly. However it's perfect for Barbie. I staged the pizza with some Rement pieces and I must say it looks pretty darned good! The pizza is topped with pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, and black olives. And of course EXTRA cheese!

1st Tuesday in 2011

The boys all head back to school today, and me...I'm hitting the gym. Time for me to really buckle down if I want to lose 25-30 pounds before Donnie comes home in April. After I hit the gym, I've got to stop by the vet's to pickup Zeus' vaccine papers. He's heading to the groomers for a spa day. He started limping this afternoon, I think it's his claws though.
Donnie usually trims them and I am ashamed to admit that since it scares me to do it (Zeus knows I'm scared of hurting him so he tends to be jittery too, which makes me even more nervous. Vicious Cycle really!) I haven't trimmed his nails since July when Donnie did them. Zeus let me look at the leg he's favoring, and even with putting pretty firm pressure from shoulder to toes, he didn't flinch, yip, nip or anything which is what leads me to believe it's his nails. BUT if he's not better by Wednesday I will get him in to see the Vet!!!

On the mini front I have been hard at work on Valentine's Day goodies. I've been decorating cookies, cupcakes and even made a heart shaped Red Velvet cake! More of my current pieces can be seen on my Flickr.