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Home Crafting Project: The Door Curtain (#1)
Our front door is a bit drafty.
More than a bit, really: during the recent windstorm, water was blowing in under the bottom seam.
And that’s after we (T) have fixed the threshold.
In the long run, the whole door needs replacing, as well as the frame. And we need a storm door. But in the short run, I hung a curtain.
Not just any curtain!
I bought two lengths of heavy upholstery fabric on clearance at JoAnn’s, and then a layer of batting (the stuff that goes in the middle of quilts). I sewed a giant tube, inserted the batting, and then sewed a border to hold the batting down.
Then I sewed up the top so that I could slide a curtain rod through it, and hung a swing-arm curtain rod (this) above the door, so we can swing the curtain away to get out the door.
The difference was immediately noticeable.
Next up: the back door!
Is your house drafty? Too warm in summer? Too cold in winter? How do you deal with it?
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Protected: Small Victories
Weight Loss – back where I started
Back in August I was posting my weight.
Back then I weighed about 167 lbs and the kittens weighed about 6 lbs.
Then a vacation and Christmas and stress happened.
When I weighed myself on 12/27 I was up to 172-173 lbs.
Today, after 4-1/2 weeks of weightwatchers, I’m back to 167.8 lbs.
And the kittens weigh 10 and 11 lbs. 🙂
Yesterday I:
* wrote down all points
* Wii’d for 11 minutes
Today I will:
* Gym for at least 1/2 an hour
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/464562.html. You can comment here or there.
But Everyone Else is Doing it… (weight loss and joining a gym)
Hello and happy Saturday!
I confess, “everyone else is doing it” is a very strong motivator for me to not do something: dye my hair red, even when I wanted to. Wear something fashionable. Start weight loss programs in January.
On the other hand, I really want to lose weight and get in better shape. So I’ve started – technically in December – back onto Weight Watchers.
(Because I’m like that, I’m still using the old “fiber and fat” Points program, because I know it, it works, and I have all the stuff. (Fiber makes stuff cost less “points;” fat makes it cost more.))
And I joined a gym! This was tricky for me, because I kept getting nervous and finding reasons to stall and not go. It’s a tiny gym, but it’s less than 10 minutes away, it’s all-hours access, and it has the machines I want, most specifically an elliptical and a recumbent bike (I’ll worry about weights later).
I love it. I love getting all sweaty and out of breath. I love the feeling that I’m actually burning calories. I love the feeling in my muscles the next day that means I’m doing something right. I love it.
Now to figure out the weight machines so I can start toning, too…
So, what are you doing nicely for yourself this year?
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/460834.html. You can comment here or there.
Tracking Food Waste
I blogged a year or two ago about a blogger who posted Food Waste Fridays. I can’t find the link right now, but I’ve just found this article from heifer.org.
(Ah, here: Food Waste Friday)
We don’t waste a lot of food, and what we do, we usually compost. But it still bothers me.
Do you have any tricks for minimizing food waste in your house?
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/456211.html. You can comment here or there.
Moodles and Noodles and Other Pantry Staples
T. and I have been experimenting, since discovering various canned meats in the grocery store, with variations on tuna-noodle casserole.
Growing up, my mom & grandma called this Toodles and Noodles, and we always omitted the breadcrumbs and sometimes the peas. It is, at its base, a pantry staple: a can of soup, half a bag of egg noodles, and a can of tuna fish, and you have a meal.
It’s served T. & I well over the years (I usually add panko to the top, and we almost always add the frozen peas).
Canned chicken + cream of chicken soup worked pretty well. It was a bit one-note, but I think adding garlic would help with that. Choodles and noodles!
Spurred on by our success, and with a can of corned beef and a can of cream-of-mushroom-with-garlic soup, we moved on to try another casserole. Moodles and noodles! To this one we added sauteed onions and mushrooms, and got something sort of like a beef stroganoff.
I’m not sure what to try next. Tofu and noodles?
What about you? What are your go-to pantry meals? Any fun variations on the classics?
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/456008.html. You can comment here or there.
Dream House, House I have
So, I have a pinterest.
And I’ve been putting a lot of house ideas on there.
That, and talking to friends talking about their dream houses, leads me to thinking about that dichotomy.
So, over here, we have ~~the ideal house~~ Mine is a 2-story-with-attic in a style common around here which so far I’ve been unable to put a name to, with 3 bedrooms and a closet office, a wide, open kitchen, and a lot of light.
And over here, we have the house I own. It’s a short squat farmhouse that currently has very bare walls – unpainted drywall in one room, bare “studs” in another- bad linoleum, and strange room shapes (It does have, technically, 3 bedrooms and a closet office).
Of course, the advantage of the house I own is that it’s mine. And I’ve been working on thinking about Dream House that way – not about the house I might have some day, but about what I can do to my current house to make it My House.
(First step, as soon as we can afford it, is obviously getting someone in to fix the walls.)
So when I think about Dream House, I’m going to work on thinking Dreams For This House.
But that’s me. What about you?
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Stair Sprints, Personal appearance, and Firewood!
I recently posted my resolutions for 2013.
In keeping with the New, Improved Lyn, I have been doing sprints of the stairs at work on lunch.
My cardio fitness is pretty… unfit, really. So stairs are hard. But it’s gratifying to find out that they get easier every day. Just another minute a day, every work day (with some backtracking on Mondays, so it’s like:
5-6-7
6-7-8-9-10
9-10 (this part is presumed; I started last Wednesday).
Not only does this burn calories and warm me up (two things I need at this job!), but it’s helping me get in shape for this (Buttermilk Falls)
and these (Taughannock Falls)
and these (Robert H. Treman State Park)
and these (Watkins Glen State Park).
In other news, I’ve been thinking about my wardrobe. One of the things I want to do this year that I forgot to put on the list was – pick one outfit that really looks the way I want to look, and make it happen, buy, sew, whathaveyou.
I’m also trying (one day and not posted so far) to take pictures of my current outfits, in both vanity and to encourage myself not to keep wearing the same 8 outfits. Both ideas kind of spurred by The Uniform Project.
In completely other news, have I mentioned how happy having a giant pile of wood behind my garage makes me? It’s like… totally non-liquid assets. Solid assets. Security. It fills me with warmth.
And then it fills me with warmth splitting it, hauling it, and stacking it.
And then it fills me with warmth in the wood-burning stove.
And then emptying the ashes.
Isn’t that awesome?
<3
What about you? What will make you life better?
What fills you with warmth?
What makes you more the you that you want to be?
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