Wednesday, June 30, 2010

06/30/10 - Food

Breakfast - two pieces of toast with one egg.

Lunch - one half of a Jimmy John tuna sandwich with a few baked potato chips.

Then I treated myself to a McDonald's small vanilla cone. Lovely.

I was out shopping all afternoon and when I got home I was hot and thirsty so I had a frozen fruit bar - only 25 calories and very refreshing.

Supper - spinach salad, some crackers, and for dessert a small low-fat yogurt with blueberries and a sprinkling of granola.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

06/29/10 - Food

Breakfast - two pieces of toast, one egg

Lunch - sandwich, TJs veggie sticks

Afternoon snack - almonds

Supper - vegetable fried rice with yesterday's leftover vegetables. It was overcooked and mushy and awful. I ate most of it though and wished that I were a better cook. Oh well, there was one little Skinny Cow ice cream in the fridge and I ate the whole thing even though I was not hungry. So there.

I'm getting bored with my food. The best thing I have had lately was that Panera salad.

Monday, June 28, 2010

06/28/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with an egg

Lunch - shrimp salad bulked up with lots of lettuce, mini rye toasts with cream cheese, and then I finished off the last of the dark chocolate gelato.

Supper - chicken and stir fried veggies (made too many and only ate about half). However, there is always room for dessert and I had 1/3 cup of chocolate Cheerios with skim milk.

I did nibble on some almonds this afternoon and tonight - not because I was hungry, but because I wanted something crunchy. Almonds fill that need quickly and the are a lot healthier than potato chips (which would be my normal choice).

Sunday, June 27, 2010

06/27/10 - Food

Breakfast - a church breakfast in the park......one pancake, one sausage patty, one small bowl of fruit.

Lunch - half of a Panera chopped chicken salad and half a whole wheat roll. One sugar-free cookie for dessert.

Supper - the other half of the Panera salad and roll. WW ice cream for dessert.

A glass of skim milk at bedtime.


Saturday, June 26, 2010

Busy Saturday

I just wanted to make a sample block from Sharon Craig's new book, Layer 'Em Up #3, so I chose an easy block and before I knew it, I had a whole quilt top done. It is a good table-topper size, not my colors at all, and the pink sashing kind of takes center stage.

Here is a close-up of one of the fabrics - a scrap piece of musical instruments that has been in my stash for years.

As long as I got the top done, I decided to also pick out a backing and make a binding. I found this wild wavy stripe in my stash and thought it would finish off the quilt nicely.

After spending part of Friday with my friend, Brenda, who is a master stitcher, I decided to start a new stitching project. This piece also has bright colors that are not my usual choice.
I must be in a wild and crazy mood. : )

Today I am very grateful for air conditioning and my nice, chilly Quilt Studio (in the basement).

06/26/10 - Food

Today I wanted to eat and eat and eat. I restrained myself though because I have an outfit hanging in my closet ready for a big family wedding coming up in August. I cannot afford to gain an ounce or the outfit will not fit. So even though I wanted to overeat today, the thought of that tight-fitting jacket helped me reign in my appetite.

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter and some cherries

Lunch - shrimp salad, mini rye toasts with cream cheese, sugar-free cookie

Mid-afternoon snack - almonds

Supper - small piece of chicken, stir-fried veggies, one spoonful of dark chocolate gelato.

Friday, June 25, 2010

06/25/10 - Food

Twas not a low-calorie day........

Breakfast - toast with an egg - a breakfast sandwich so to speak.

Lunch - out with a friend. I had a sandwich of chicken, Swiss cheese, bacon, avocado, lettuce & tomato on grilled sourdough bread and waffle fries. I left a lot of bread on the plate and only ate a small amount of the fries, but still everything was laden with calories and fat. It was mighty tasty though!

Supper - small salad with chicken strips, leftover green beans, and for dessert a small bowl of luscious blueberries sweetened with Splenda, sprinkled with granola and finished off with fat-free cream.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

06/224/10 - Food

Breakfast - cherries, one piece of toast with one egg on top.

Lunch - shrimp/pineapple/macaroni salad (my mother's recipe - loaded with calories, but a summer favorite of our family), rye mini toasts with cream cheese. Blueberries for dessert.

Supper - chicken patty, leftover broccoli, fresh green beans, and a sugar-free cookie.

Bed time - one glass of skim milk

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Quilting Today

A finished quilt - pieced, quilted and bound. It is a crazy 9-patch with added rectangles.

The back of the quilt.

A sample of the wonderful quilting my friend Moe did on her new mid-arm quilting machine.

Last Friday I took a class with Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville fame. These are the blocks I made in class.

The rest of the blocks are prepared and ready to sew, but I am going to save the sewing for my upcoming quilting retreat.

This is my latest quilt book purchase and I wanted to try out the technique and make some blocks. I got 8 blocks made tonight and will take pictures tomorrow.
It was so nice to have a day at home and time in my Quilt Studio.

06/23/10 - Food

Breakfast - cherries, toast with peanut butter

Mid-morning snack - one sugar-free cookie

Lunch - chicken patty, small side salad, WW ice cream

Supper - broccoli, small potato, scrambled eggs, one piece of toast, one spoonful of dark chocolate gelato.

(Just love those eggs I got from Trader Joe's, and the broccoli was baby broccoli and it was so tender and sweet - Yum.)

06/22/10 - Food

This post is being made on 6/23, but I am going to try and remember what I ate yesterday.

Life is getting back to normal after a chaotic weekend. Yesterday was hot and I was in a crabby mood so today I am beginning to feel like myself again.

Here is yesterday's food -

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter.

Lunch - I work at church on Tuesdays and usually bring a sandwich. However, I did not feel like making a sandwich so I stuffed a container of peach chunks and a 100-calorie pack of peanut-butter crackers in my lunch bag. Not a very nutritious lunch and it did not satisfy my hunger at all.

Therefore, on the way home I stopped at Trader Joe's to get something decent to eat for supper. I picked up several chicken options, some frozen veggie fried rice, and of course lettuce. However, I ended up making scrambled eggs, some O'Brien potatoes and a piece of toast. I have to say though that the eggs were excellent. I bought some cage-free brown eggs. I thought all eggs tasted the same, but these seemed smoother and richer. It could be that I was very hungry, however, I just may decide to have scrambled eggs again tonight.

It is raining and storming here today. If the electricity manages to stay on today I will post again tonight with the foods I ate today. I did lose a few pounds over the weekend, but that was due to stress and eating less than normal. Those pounds undoubtedly will magically re-appear as the week progresses.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

what happened????

For those few that follow this blog, I did not get kidnapped by Jillian.

On Friday we had huge storms where I live and the electricity at my sister's condo is out. She is on oxygen, so she and her care-giver and my brother-in-law moved in with me for the duration.

I will get back on track tomorrow - Monday.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

06/17/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, grapes

Lunch - a salad potluck luncheon at church, small portions of seven salads and small portions of two desserts. Lots of calories I'm sure, but very very good - and excellent company!

Supper - Stouffer Fish dinner with macaroni & cheese (very little mac & cheese and a decent size portion of fish which would be OK except that it was heavy on the breading.) Add to that some Trader Joe's mini rye toasts slathered with WW cream cheese and I'm sure that the calorie count for the day was pretty high.


Wednesday, June 16, 2010

06/16/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, grapes

Lunch - salad with tuna fish, mini rye toasts with WW cream cheese.

Supper - Healthy Request pumpkin ravioli, bread, vanilla brulee rice Quakes.

Today I did not have much of an appetite. I only ate half of my salad and about 2/3 of the ravioli, AND I only had one piece of toast this morning. I'm not sick, but I am feeling terribly guilty that I have not moved about much today. No exercise and not much movement is not good at all. The only way I know to compensate for not burning calories is to eat less calories. This has to change. I think I need a Jillian in my life!

No Self-Motivation

Here I sit at my desk, not paying bills or taking care of emails, but taking the time to blog about how I lack self-motivation. Not every day, but on more days than I like to admit, I have so little motivation or energy or get-up-and-go that I get upset with myself and then get depressed.

This is one pile of unfinished projects. One out of many.

This is a quilt top that I started to pin baste but got discouraged because I don't think the back is taut enough and I probably will have to pull all the pins out and start over again. Big sigh.
Here is a quilt that I am finishing the hand sewing of the binding. This I enjoy doing, but save it for when there is a good television show. Not many good television shows, so that project is stalled.
This is one of several piles of magazines that I am slowly going through to pull out ideas or techniques. So many, many magazines.........
These are containers of knitting projects - on the needles and far from being completed. It would be so nice to get at least one of those big knitting projects finished.
I need a kick in the pants, or a slap upside the head, or company coming, or a deadline, or notice of inspection, or amazing inspiration. Or perhaps I just need a vanilla cone from McDonald's or a Java Chip from Starbucks.

Thanks for reading my tale of woe. I feel better now. I think I will go mop the kitchen floor.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

06/15/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, grapes

Lunch - sandwich, TJs veggie sticks

Supper - leftover yellow rice, 2 turkey hot dogs (no bun), one piece of bread *, grapes.

* I stopped at the grocery store on my way home this afternoon and saw a new bread called Today's Temptation, made in Chicago. The label says, Whole Grains, Lo-Carb/Hi-Fibre, no preservatives added, only 3g digestible carbs, fat free, sugar free, cholesterol free, good for diabetics. Well now - with all those "......free"s, you would think it might be taste-free also, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted. Or was I just very hungry? It was nice and grainy, on the dark side, and had a soft crust coated with oat meal bits. I thought it was down-right yummy and I will have it as toast in the morning.

Monday, June 14, 2010

06/14/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, grapes

Lunch - egg salad sandwich, chips, pickles, WW strawberry ice cream bar.

Supper - steamed veggies with yellow rice, sugar-free Jello with Cool Whip and a couple of pretzels.


Sunday, June 13, 2010

06/13/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, grapes

Lunch - at Red Lobster - biscuit, salad, Sailor's platter - Yum Yum

Afternoon snack - almonds

Supper - small bowl of Vic's popcorn, miniature rye melba toast rounds with peanut butter, cherries.

and of course some milk before I go to bed........

Saturday, June 12, 2010

06/12/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, grapes

Lunch - leftover half sandwich from yesterday, chips, cherries

Supper - yellow rice, chicken breast, steamed onion, steamed broccoli, True North almond clusters.

Bedtime - skim milk

Friday, June 11, 2010

06/11/10 - Food

This morning I decided to have a big, hearty breakfast because I was going shopping and thought I might either skip lunch or have a very late lunch.

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, one egg scrambled, O'Brien potatoes, grapes.

A very late lunch - half a chicken salad sandwich on whole wheat bread, a few baked potato chips, cherries.

Supper - a Stouffer frozen dinner - macaroni and beef - and a few crackers.


Finish and Begin

Finished the binding on two little quilts for friend Moe.

Finished the binding on my little patchwork pumpkin quilt.

I will be taking a class next week and need to have 8.5 inch squares cut for the class. I decided on a black and white theme.

Tonight I got all the black squares cut - and thus begins a new quilt.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

DONE !

Finished the second valance and packed it for taking to church.
This project is DONE ! ! !

06/10/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, grapes

Lunch - out with the family at Appleby's. Had a shrimp/avacado half salad. It was good, but not very filling. So I came home and had a WW fudge bar and some popcorn.

Supper - fixed the last of the chicken pot stickers, half of a small corn muffin, and then I fixed some broccoli and made the mistake of using Butter Buds instead of butter. It would have been better to have nothing on the broccoli instead of that fake taste. Yuck. It went down the disposal.

I'll have some skim milk before going to bed.


Wednesday, June 9, 2010

A Good Day

This little stocking was fun to stitch. It is from Blackbird Designs in the Sweet August booklet. Although the suggested fabric count is 30, I made it on 28ct and although the suggested beads are Czech glass beads, I used some little wooden beads I had in my stash.
This is the backing fabric I chose.


On to the valance project for church.............I made a sample to make sure I knew what I was doing. The lining has to smaller than the front so that when it is ironed, the backing will not show.
The lining fabric - a 50% off bargain at JoAnn's.
Cutting the lining fabric.
Sewing the lining to the front.
Sewing the rod pocket.
One valance completely done. And I had time this evening to get started on the second valance.
Now, for all my family and friends who think that I am always neat and organized, please enjoy this photo of my very messy fabric/cutting room. This is the way it usually looks. I clean it up only when expecting company.
In addition to the stitching finish and the valance finish, I also worked on some binding. It was a good day!

06/09/10 - Food

Breakfast - back to my favorite toast with peanut butter, grapes.

Lunch - salad with broccoli and egg, wheat thins, WW cream cheese, peach chunks.

Supper - Smoked turkey sausage, small green salad, baked potato chips, one lovely luscious teaspoonful of dark chocolate gelato.

Before I go to bed I will have a glass of skim milk and perhaps a spoonful of peanut butter. Then I can go to bed with a smile on my face!

06/08/10 - Food

Breakfast - cheese toast like I had yesterday.

Lunch - sandwich, TJs veggie sticks, applesauce

Afternoon snack - almonds

Supper - stir fry with half a hamburger pattie, a little rice, and lots of veggies. Red grapes.

Evening - small bowl (probably 2 cups) of Vic's Lite Popcorn (half salt), skim milk.


Monday, June 7, 2010

06/07/10 - Food

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise - something different for breakfast!
Yes, for breakfast I had cheese toast. I made my normal 2 pieces of toast (100 calories for 2), then put a slice of WW Swiss cheese on each slice of toast and microwaved them for 15 seconds. This was the breakfast I used to have when I was on the Diet Center diet. It is very filling and I enjoyed it - BUT - I missed my peanut butter!

Lunch - a nice salad with broccoli. Also had Wheat Thin crackers with WW cream cheese. For dessert I had a WW fudge bar.

Mid-afternoon snack - some TJs veggie sticks.

Supper was turkey smoked sausage, one small corn muffin, and a small container (60 calories) of apple sauce. I also had three yogurt pretzels.

So, what is a day without peanut butter? Terrible. I will have a glass of skim milk before bed and a small spoonful of peanut butter! Yeah.

What did I get myself into????

This is a HUGE roll of toile fabric and a sample valance. I have been asked to make two more valances for the windows in a hallway at church. Straight sewing, right? How hard could it be?Well, getting the ten-year-old cellophane off the roll was the first challenge, then maneuvering it so that I could iron enough fabric to begin cutting.
Then maneuvering the roll back to the cutting table and straight enough to cut. I ended up clipping the edges to the cutting board so that it would not slip and slide while I cut.
I did that much last night, managing to get three lengths cut successfully. I hope to get more cut tonight and begin to sew the lengths together. The window width is 96 inches so I need to make the valance double that, or 192 inches. Oh my. That's a lot of fabric to handle - AND, it has to be lined.

In the meantime, I received my EQ7 upgrade and have been playing. What fun to design quilts. Just wish it were as easy to sew them!

06/06/10 - Food

Blogger has been out of order for quite a while and I have not been able to blog my food from Sunday. So here it is, as best I can remember on Monday afternoon.

Breakfast - Toast with peanut butter

Lunch - at Red Lobster - the lunch portion of breaded shrimp, a baked potato, one biscuit, ceasar salad with the dressing on the side.

Mid-Afternoon - two small spoonfuls of dark chocolate gelato

Supper - didn't feel like fixing a meal so throughout the evening I munched on two small corn muffins and a handful of baked potato chips.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

06/05/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter

Lunch - big salad with lettuce, broccoli, and deli seafood salad. Also had a few TJ veggie sticks.

I did not have any dessert at lunch because I was going to a church function where I knew there would be cookies and cake. However, I surprised myself by not having any refreshments at all even though there were sandwiches, homemade cookies and cake. I talked with friends, ignoring the food, and left without going near the food tables.

Supper - chicken breast steamed in vegetable broth, green beans, 2 small homemade corn muffins, one overflowing teaspoon of dark chocolate gelato.

06/04/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter and the last of the fresh cherries

Lunch - from the grocery store deli - cole slaw, seafood salad. Some Guiltless corn chips dipped in a combination of cheddar cheese and WW cream cheese heated in the microwave - not bad. Peach chunks for dessert.

Supper - an ear of fresh corn, leftover broccoli with a small potato mixed in, and a WW ice cream for dessert.

According to the doctor's scale this morning, I have lost a total of 6 pounds since I started keeping this food journal. Part of that is from not sneaking snacks and part of that is from the doctor taking me off of a medicine that was making me retain water. Whatever reason, I will take the weight lose and be happy.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

06/03/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, one egg scrambled with some O'Brien potatoes which I burned and was only able to salvage about half to actually eat.

Lunch - salad with tuna fish and broccoli, a few TJ veggie sticks and Skinny Cow ice cream.

Supper - chicken pot stickers, steamed broccoli, fresh cherries and a piece of sugar-free dark chocolate candy.

I'll have a glass of skim milk before bed time and that will be all I can have until after a blood test at the doctor's office tomorrow morning. I'm sure I will have a weigh-in also. Sigh.


Wednesday, June 2, 2010

06/02/10 - Food

Breakfast - one blueberry Eggo waffle with WW cream cheese, one piece of toast with peanut butter.

Lunch - salad with broccoli and carrots, and some True North almond clusters.

Supper - Fellow blogger, Caryl, shared a meal idea with me that I tried tonight. Basically it is a 1 point tortilla which I had with some bean dip, shredded cheese, and I added some chicken. It was good, but I'm not a lover of bean dip so I think I will try it again without the bean dip. Caryl made it with leftover cooked veggies added which I will do next time. I also had an ear of fresh corn. For dessert I had sugar-free Jello and some sugar-free cookies.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

06/01/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter and some fresh cherries

Lunch - went out to lunch with friends. It was a late lunch and I was hungry so I ate the whole roll (with butter) that was placed on my bread plate by the waiter. It was very, very good. I had a quiche that came with a small side salad. I ate the salad, but left quite a bit of the quiche on the plate as I was really full from the big roll!

Part of our table conversation was about a grocery store in the area called Fresh Market. Since I had never been there, I decided to go look it over. So for supper tonight I had fresh chicken pot stickers (excellent) and an ear of fresh corn (absolutely tender and wonderful). For dessert I had four peanut butter yogurt pretzels. All from the Fresh Market and all very, very good.