February Made Me Shiver

with every paper I delivered ... Jim Croce, American Pie.

February is coming to an end .. I need to remember that January and February sometimes go by slowly but the rest of the year will just fly by. 

Last month my goal/thing was to get up earlier, with the intent to get on the treadmill and get more walking/steps in.  I moved the alarm to 5:30 and was able to get up most days, at least more than not.  However, I gave myself permission to skip getting up early if I was too tired or lazy or whatever.  No guilt. 

I'm going to keep my alarm at 5:30 for now -- it seems to work.  Or at least it seems to be something sustainable.

For March I will have two goals:

1. Limit TV watching to 2 hours a day (except for Friday nights when I watch Doctor Who -- then it is unlimited); and
2. Keep my caloric intake to 1200 / day.  I'm frustrated with my inability to lose weight so I'm going to go back to the old standby of eating less.  That should work.

I read something recently that stated that eating healthier actually brings about weight loss.  To remove processed foods from the diet.  I should probably try to get my husband on board with that (since he is doing most of the cooking now) and see what we can do.  He should be eating healthier anyway.  However, for now, I'm going to count calories.

Always Take a Banana to a Party

I went to Gallifrey One again this year, with Nevada and my nephew Jay.  (#6 on the List).  Turns out there was a baby shower for my SIL on the Saturday of Galli, so I was only able to attend on Friday.

Fortunately, Friday was a good day -- there were interviews with Sylvester McCoy (Doctor #7) and Sophie Aldred (Ace), David Bradley (Doctor #1 and Walder Frey of GoT), and Stephen Moffet (Doctor Who and Sherlock show runner).  Nevada and I also went to a cocktail reception with the Classic Who actors and others.

After the reception, we went back to our room and ate apple and cheese and then went to a trivia night -- btw I suck at Doctor Who trivia.  I knew maybe 2 answers to the questions.

It's over for this year .. :(.  now looking forward to 2019 ..

SMART Stuff

So.  (My favorite first blogpost word.)

You know I have my list -- which I need to look at so I can see where I stand --anyway, one of my goals this year is to post 2x a week.

I'm having trouble thinking of content.  It's not that my life is busier or less/more interesting (though I don't think I've been doing as much since Nevada moved to Seattle).  I guess I'm just not taking the time to write -- it may be that I'm watching too much TV or that because so many people have stopped blogging, I'm not as interested. Or perhaps because I'm spending more time commuting and am therefore more tired at night ..

Anyway, I need to have a plan of attack, which I'll take this weekend to think what that might be.  It's a long weekend to which I'm adding Gallifrey One (Doctor Who convention) and my DIL's baby shower.  That won't actually give me more time to think -- but it will give me more to write about.

SMART stands for

• Specific (simple, sensible, significant).
• Measurable (meaningful, motivating).
• Achievable (agreed, attainable).
• Relevant (reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based).
• Time bound (time-based, time limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive).

Me, in a thimbleberry patch .. surprising I didn't get lost.

First Finish of 2018

I have now finished the quilt for my OS baby girl.  It is smaller than many I have made, but I am happy with how it turned out.  I probably should have added a border to make it a little larger, but was going with the pattern and so didn't.

I did some fussy cutting for the larger elephants -- a first for me.  Well at least to succeed at it.  I tried with another quilt I made but the images I was fussy cutting were too large for the blocks so they got cut off.

I used a striped grey and white fabric for the binding.  I had wanted to use a mint polka dot but decided that would be too much green -- however, I'm still second guessing myself on that choice. 

Here's the quilt.

It's not very big - 36x48 - I think.  The next one will have to be bigger.   Here's a picture of the diaper cake that my YD and I made for the baby shower ..

January Update - February Goals

So I feel like I made good progress on my January goals ..

1. Finish quilt for grandbaby #5 -- I finished the quilting.  Just need to add the binding.
2. Work on knit blanket for grandbaby #5 -- okay.  Didn't do that, but I'll jump on it this month.
3. Work on baby quilt -- I've got a bunch of strips done.  My plan is to finish it in February (at least the top)
4. Walk 120 miles (fitbit miles) -- 126 for January :)
5. Complete four weeks of Couch to 5K -- I started Week 4/Day 1 this week
6. Birthday Blog Post for SIL  - done
7. Declutter bedroom/bathroom - done

Here are my goals for February:

1. Work on knit blanket
2. Finish baby clothes quilt
3. Walk 120 fitbit miles
4. Complete six weeks of Couch to 5K
5. Gallifrey One
6. Lunches with friends (at least 2 this month)
7. Date with my hubby

I'm not sure what I want to do for my February new thing -- I was supposed to stay away from sugar last month (and totally failed).  I haven't come up with anything for this month yet ... suggestions?