How are your resolutions coming along?

          What resolution(s) did you make? How are they coming along? I want to hear your stories, so here is mine!

          I've never made the 'lose weight' resolution until this year. I was always slender growing up but at about 16 my weight started to fluctuate. I was still in an acceptable range until about 18. Hubby and I got married when I was 18 and I had went from 120 when I met him a year earlier to 165 on our wedding day. Although I lost weight with both kids and already weighed less the days they were born than I did the day I got pregnant, the weight came back, and multiplied! Until now, when I am unfortunately 189. To get back to an acceptable, healthy weight I have to lose 54 pounds! 135 seems so very far away right now! And now for pictures! The first is a before, when I was a little underweight; the second is 3 weeks after Peanut was born when I was slightly over my healthy BMI weight but looked pretty good for someone who had just had a baby; and the last one is HORRIBLE, it was just this past Christmas morning. You have been warned.

Okay, so there you have it. What I was, what I am. That last picture really does show everything bad! My tummy, legs, butt and arms have all exploded! I have already started my weight loss plan. It's off to a slow start with only 3 pounds down, but tomorrow starts my second stage and I should be getting some great results soon! So how about you? Are you on track with your resolutions? Have you abandon them? Have you even started them? I want to hear from you. Leave some comments telling me how your doing, or a link to your blog so we can empower and encourage  each other! And always remember, this is my place so it is a safe zone!

Giveaway time! From Mackerilla, The Cruzer and Little Cru Convertible bag PDF pattern! CLOSED

     SO... I spent two days absolutely agonizing over what to giveaway! I found inspiration kits, and fabrics, and fabric bundles, and patterns. I wanted to make sure I found something that I liked and could share. It needed to be worthwhile. I also wanted it to be something to push myself a little bit. I fell into a crafting rut so I needed to find something to kick start my crafty again! So after I put a list together of all of these amazing things I loved, I narrowed it down to about 10 and then Doodle Bug poked his head over my shoulder and said, "Are you going to make something yet, Mommy?" I took the cue and asked him what I should make. So he sat with me and automatically picked out this bag pattern. So here it is!

From Mackerilla, The Cruzer and Little Cru Convertible bag PDF pattern!

With this pattern you can make two different bags. The Lil Cru Dimensions: - 12"H x 11"W x 3.5"D which is your must-have convertible backpack-style purse. And the Cruzer Dimensions: - 14"H x 15"W x 4 1/2" is a full-size convertible backpack-style purse.
Bag features include adjustable straps, zippered top closure, two exterior side pockets for water bottles, front exterior zippered pocket, rear "split" open top pocket, large interior split pocket.

 (Also if you don't want to make it yourself she has one for sale in her shop! She also has some other super cute bag items you might want to go see!)

I'll go ahead and let you know the rules, 1 entry for a comment, plus 1 entry for each new follower you refer that follows on Google Friend. You can send as many as you want just make sure they tell me who sent them. So example... Jenny@herwebsite leaves a comment that says, "Hi! I'm a new follower! Sarah795 sent me!" A piece of paper with Jenny@herwebsite goes into the jar as well as another piece of paper with Sarah795. Entries will be accepted until February 2nd. It will close at 2PM Florida time. For every entry your name will go on a piece of paper in a jar and when the giveaway closes Doodle Bug will pick one from the jar and we will announce the winner on February 3rd. Got it? Easy right? So go ahead and leave some love and send some new friends!

My first giveaway

     Okay, so it seems when Doodle Bug gets a three day weekend my productivity declines drastically. I was going to write a post inspired by one of Mama Kat's writing workshop prompts. I only halfheartedly thought about writing a love poem to my favorite food then realized it just made me want triple chocolate chunk fudge brownies! Along those same lines I haven't got my creative juices flowing much more than hemming a pair of pants for Hubby and a couple of pairs my neighbor dropped off Monday night. So I'm going to jump start myself again! Here's where it's going to get fun though. I've been wanting to buy something on Etsy and never have yet. So over the next 2 days I'm going to scour the site and find something to make, or something to make something with. After that, on Friday, I'm going to share with you what I found. But best of all I'm going to buy two so that I can then give one away. So stay tuned for my first giveaway! Details coming soon!

Ice Cream Money pouch short tutorial

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          On Wednesdays and Fridays Doodle Bug's school has ice cream available for a treat. Which we use to our advantage when he's having a good week or as an incentive. We normally don't have ice cream items at home except maybe the occasional reduced fat vanilla (MP brand from Target-nummy)! Anyway I have been sending ice cream money to school in a re-purposed bulk candy bag. I wanted to make something and this is what I came up with. I love the way the ice cream and cone came out but wish I had done it smaller and that the word 'money' had been centered like it was supposed to be! I am really over seeing tiny stitches for a while now too by the way!

          It was fairly simple, draw up a design, transfer it to the fabric, embroider the image, make into small drawstring bag. Kind of time consuming but really cool to have your work walk around and be seen by teachers and other mom's that say, "You made that?!"

Steps

Design it.

Transfer it.

Embroider it. Split stitch for the words. Back stitch for design.

Admire it.

Bag it. Fold over the top hems and sew across to make a drawstring sleeve. Right sides facing together, sew up both edges and bottom. Insert drawstring and flip bag. Easy.

As with all of my projects, I have designed them for my family and love to share with you so you can have them for your families as well. All projects, patterns and directions are meant for your personal use and neither the patterns nor completed projects are to be used for monetary gain.

Okay, so this is what's going to happen... I'm going to ramble!

          I'm not sure if you noticed but I missed posting on Monday. I generally post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I took Monday off because Doodle Bug had it off too. I did want to post about the project I'm working on but that was when I thought I would have it done! I figured I would go to WallyWorld to get a better, more mint colored, embroidery floss and wouldn't you know they didn't have ANY! Really, none at all! I must say I really miss when they had a bigger craft section. I should count my fortunes though and be glad that my WallyWorld is only 2 blocks away and does still have some crafts and fabrics. I didn't want to go over to the other side of town to JoAnn's or Michael's so I made do. Keep in mind this was after putting off working on the project for about 36 hours! Then, it was supposed to be done by today so Doodle Bug could use it... again nope. So now my 'you-must-have-this-done-Amber' deadline is Friday morning. This means there is no foreseen reason I won't be able to post it Friday, right?

          On another note, our AC is croaking and we probably won't be able to fix/replace it until the end of next month! This probably seems like a big fat PPFFTT to most of you right now because you probably have snow. We on the other hand have humid stickiness, which normally is counteracted with what else but a trusty AC unit. And ours is on her last leg it seems. This is making my house hot, and miserable. I'm now asking myself why is this a problem for me? I grew up without AC. We would open all the windows on both floors of the house, pop the screens in and my dad would methodically position certain fans in certain windows to pull air in from here and push air out from there. Then after moving to Florida I've had AC ever since. The first place Hubby and I had was cooled with two window units, one of which had been installed in the wall! But, wow, how cold Hubby kept it in there was astounding! Hubby usually likes it  around 72. I usually like it around 77. I try to keep the thermostat at 74 to compromise while Hubby is home and turn it up to 77 while he's at work. But now no one is happy because the thermostat currently reads 81. Even with all of our fans going and the screened windows open, the air still feels 'used'. It's not comfortable but I don't think the kids even realize anything is different! So again, why am I so dependent on artificially cooled air? At least the kids are happy, and maybe I can sweat off some pounds!
          See you Friday with a new crafty post!