Losing the Baby Weight

When I embarked upon this adoption voyage, I was a fairly trim gal. You could find me in the gym most evenings kickboxing or cross training. I was totally into it. I even ran a marathon the Summer of 2005!

Then, I lost my energy. The drive to eat super healthy and get a really good workout was replaced with lots of TV, pizza and chardonnay. My new sewing hobby and the subsequent launching of my Etsy shop required a lot of sitting and not a lot of calorie burning.

What can I say? The pounds just kinda stacked up.


And, then they stacked up some more.

Last summer something shifted. I got my hands on Valerie Bertinelli's autobiograpy and was inspired to make a change. Valerie looks great and I want to, too!

Sooooo, September 1st I changed my eating habits and October 1st I signed up with a very, very cool Spinning studio.


My little spinning shop is in the back of our local cafe - a five minute drive from my house. It is a small, clean, well ventilated, uncrowded workout space. And you can grab a non fat latte after you exercise! Nice.

It is so completely great that I somehow manage to drag my butt out of bed for a 6 am class 3-4 times a week. Now thats what I'm talking about! And, I've lost 20 pounds!!!!!!! So, yeah, I'm gonna stick with this program and hope to lose another 20.

Time to let go.

From a Land Far, Far Away

A friendly girl named Katie put out a cyber-call and invited anyone interested in a crafty interchange to sign up on her adorable blog: Skunkboy Creatures. It had been quite some time since I involved myself in anything swaptastic and I decided that it was a most excellent idea indeed.

My motto right now is "Why Not?", so not only did I offer my name, but I agreed to trade with anyone...in the world...totally hoping that I would have the chance to go international with this endeavor.

And, did I luck out!!!! Oh yes I did.


I was matched with a very lovely, creative, colorful, energetic woman from New Zealand. Her blog is called A Whim of Mine and she just opened an etsy shop of the same name. This little lady is quite skilled with a needle and with a hook. Look at this beautiful embroidered rhino she created...


Amy and I chatted a little via email and shared our fave colors and a few other personal thoughts in order to inspire the others creation. I was quite enamored with a crocheted doll that she made (I think it was Charles Darwin or something?) and asked if she made any "girly" ones? She said "maybe". Haha.

Look what just came in for a landing at my house:


Adorable! Thanks Amy!!!!

This little fairy wears magic wings on her spring green sweater vest! How cute is that? Did you see the wee buttons? And, the cheeky expression? She wears her hair in little pony-buns just like I do from time to time. Oh my gosh!


This wee fairy came bearing gifts, too.


The pretty candy-colored crochet hook was Amy's way to encourage me to try my hand at crochet. What she actually said was "Get Hooking".

Why not?

Wow!

I just found out today that not only was I nominated but I made it into the "short list" of contenders for the Eco-Friendly Handmade Olympics event!

I am So Stoked!

Kristal is the creator of the RikRakStudio blog & organizer of the Handmade Olympics. She is a lovely Canadian seamstress who shares my enthusiasm for upcycling and repurposing long-forgotten, castaway fabrics. Kristal has an adorable and very popular etsy shop, too! She is incredibly generous with her promotion of other makers and handmade artists and I couldn't be luckier to be one of them.

Yay!

Sooooo, may I ask for your vote? My Redwood Lovers "Humboldt" Hoot Owl is the lucky little plushie contender.



Voting is easy - Click Here - and you will go directly to "Eco-Friendly Event 3". Once you drop by the RikRakStudios blog, please hang out for a minute and check out the other Handmade Olympic events, there are 8 in total. The Innovative Design group is really exciting!

Thanks!

This is a neat opportunity to introduce a bit of what I've been working on over the past year into this languishing little blog. I envision a colorful dovetail and hope to have some fun with it. I'm even cooking up my own little contest.

Good times. xoxo

Lily Allen - The Fear

@ Yahoo! Video

When do you think it will all become clear?

Mixed Feelings

I can't tell you how happy (& surprised!) I am to hear that there are still some old friends that kept me in their bloglines.

Thank you. It is so good to see you.

It sure was fun to blog back in the day. I really enjoyed it. The connections, the swaps, the shared photographs, the support, the "real life" meet ups were all something that I truly enjoyed about blogging. Heck, I even enjoyed the memes. It all was energizing for me. Somehow blogging and the support that grew from the shared experience kept me tethered to a sense of hopefulness in the international adoption process. A sense that I wasn't alone in the struggle.

Until it didn't.

People left for China, came back and then went password protect with their blogs. One person politely told me "sorry, but we never met in real life, so you won't be invited to my private blog" - or thats how I heard it. Even the blogs that I was invited to visit after going private would require passwords to memorize and "keychains" and far too much work on my part. (sigh)

Some folks just completely disappeared. Leaving me to wonder what happened to them. What happened to "us" - haha. Honestly, though, some of these former blog-community-mates I don't really remember, some I really do miss and some I really was tired of listening to anyway. Probably the feeling is mutual for some of them...and I totally get that.

Anyway......

I'm back to hug my blog, greet my ol' bloggy friends that stop by and hopefully welcome some of my new crafty cyber buddies to hang around here, too.

We'll see how it goes. xoxo



beautiful image above is by artist Lisa Congdon

Is anyone listening?

Just wondering.

I've been thinking about reviving this old blog...getting it up and sparring again. Get it up and moving around...

Like a Phoenix. Sort of.

I've also been thinking about getting my Bai Jia Bei quilt going again. And, about the possibility that we may just...in the most slim of random possibilities.......may just actually get our referral this year!

Maybe?

Rumor Queen predicts the possibility. And, I may just be letting down my guard to think that it just might happen.

Maybe.

Anyone with me?

Is a Phoenix tentative?