When Pigs Fly

I know I've been MIA lately on here, especially after tossing out all those challenges I was going to attempt this month, but I've apparently been under a cloud of depression that just started to life a little over a week ago. I hope you'll forgive me. I've still got those tutorials lined up - just need to sit down and get them written up. In the meantime, I managed to get the earrings that I've made so far this month photographed today and will try to share some of my favs in the coming days. (I'm going to put them all in a Facebook album.) I just had to share today's pair with you now, though. How cute are those lampworked beads? Little Flying Love Pigs. How sweet is that?

Planning for 2012

Really, it's more like planning for January, as there are several things I'm going to try this month. I discovered internet challenges last year and have found myself seriously drawn into them. (Anyone remember the A-Z Reading Challenge I posted about? I picked out a list of Andre Norton books and managed to read 4, I think. My husband wound up moving his collection into the antique secretary that his older sister returned. And then stuffs got piled in front of the door, and well...I can't easily get to them anymore. (At the moment, it would be a major excavation to get to the secretary!))

The first challenge I was crazy enough to agree to isn't even an online one. Someone at work tossed out the suggestion that we put together a team for the 2012 Athens Takes It Off challenge, which runs 10 weeks. Looking for a some encouragement to get back into my healthy, sugar-friendly eating, I mentioned it to my husband. He thought it was a good idea. That was all the encouragement I needed and so I signed up. Now if I can just figure out when the weigh-in is...

Just click if you'd like to find out more about Athens Takes It Off. I'll try to post regular updates and hopefully you'll encourage me to stick with my eating goals, which is really what this is all about for me. (Apparently I dropped quite a few pounds just by being mindful of what was going in my mouth...and then I got that sore throat and it all went out the window.) Feel free to play along on your own and see what healthy changes you can make in your life during those 10 weeks - you can share them in the comments section on here if you'd like and then we can cheer each other on.

The next challange is also one of mindfulness. I'm going to give the "river of stones" a try. For this challange, you need to properly, or completely and wholely, notice something and then write about it. There are bunches of ways you can share, or not. The whole point is to take that moment in time to notice something fully and to record that noticing, and to do that for 31 days. I'll be sharing some of my small stones over on the Laural Reufner blog, but you can find out more here if you'd like to play along.

And one final challange, because things are better in threes, right? This one is a creative, fun challange and I'd love to have you join me. I'm making a pair of earrings every day during January. For the second year, the editor of the Beading Daily enewsletter tossed out the challange to create a beaded pair of earrings everyday in January. While I'm not sure I'm making the kinds of earrings she had in mind - I don't do peyote or right angle or herringbone beaded stitches - I'm still making earrings. Heck, I might even make some as gifts for during the year or for Christmas. And I was so excited that I've already started. My husband gave a gift certificate to our local beading store, Beads and Things, and I guilt-free splurged on the stuff to make a pair of earrings with pretty kyanite drops on them. I just couldn't wait. (That's them in the photo uptop.) So last night, I had to make a second pair of earrings as well. (I'll actually post a tutorial on those earrings soon.)

I think a creative, month long challange off and on during the year could be lots of fun and I'm trying to think up some other ideas that would work well. So far, ornaments in July are sounding like a pretty good time. Why should January have all the fun?

Make Merry

Happy Christmas to all who celebrate! May today be full of blessings, big or small, and the new year for of the good things. Happy Chanuka! And a belated Merry Yule to everyone else! Be safe and I'll see you in the blogosphere in a couple of days. (I've elf projects to share! :-)

Catching Up

I really should have an exciting new post here...but I don't. National Novel Writing Month kicked off this past Tuesday and I'm woefully behind. Between getting ready for the kick-off (goodie bags!), getting ready for book fair, and covering for our school secretary, who was off with some health issues, all I did this past weekend was sleep. *grin* I did get the story started at our youth group's lock-in on Friday.

Tonight I'm heading in town to the Union Street Cafe for some serious working time. I think some of the other WriMos will be joining me there. Hopefully some serious words can be churned out and I can really get into the meat of the story, where the really fun stuff happens.

Oh, and I have a working title - Visions of Treasure Past. It's met with Drama Queen's approval, which is more than the other title's I've tossed out have done.

Okay, off to get some stuff done so I can get out of here!

Feelings of Loss

Saturday I slipped into my favorite, best fitting pair of jeans. I don't wear them often because they're getting a bit too far onto the threadbare side. They hung on my. The waist was still not a bad fit, but the rest just hung. They are so baggy in the seat now, as well as the front. I couldn't believe it. I didn't think I'd lost that much weight in the last couple of months, but wow!

So, I went in to have a health screening at OU today - part of their Healthy Ohio inititiave. Guess what? Not only was my blood pressure wonderful (113/64 - take THAT Monkey Girl!) but my weight was 198 and change. I've finally slipped below that danged threshold. The question now is, can I keep going? I don't ever expect to be 110 and a size 5 again - my body's changed as I got older AND had two kids - but it feels good to get some of that extra off. Size 18's fit better and don't look as sloppy on me. Heck, I'm almost in a size 16 now.

Being diabetic, with lower back issues, this is a great thing. Psychologically, since the smaller sizes now fit better, it's a great thing. Not everyone was meant to be tiny, but my smaller frame isn't quite so lost and my face has more definitly in it. Losing something never felt so good.

Scrapbooking Software Giveaway -- New Winner

Well, it's been over a week and unfortunately our announced winner hasn't gotten back in touch with me. Since that's a long time to wait AND my winner's code is only good until Halloween, we drew a new winner this morning. :-D Here are my lovely assistants, pulling the name:

So, who's name did they pull from the mug? Why Andrea Stern, of course! Fortunately, I know Andi, so I'm pretty sure she'll get in touch with me for her prize. It'll be really interesting to see what she creates with her prize! And once again, a big thanks to all of you who checked the contest out and a bigger thanks to those of you who entered!

Melinda

New Blog

I promised that my next post would have to do with writing, and it does. I've started a separate blog just for Laurel Reufner, the name I tend to write under. You can follow along in my writerly adventures over at Laurel Reufner's Lair.

It just seemed like it was time to have a dedicated space just for those types of posts. I'll still write about whats going in with my writing here, but the Lair is just for Laurel Reufner and what I'm up to under the pen name. Please, pop over a check it out sometime.

Melinda