Another update on Sam's diet (#11)...

It's been 3 weeks since I last reported on Sam's weight.  In that time, I've weighed her 3 times.  The first two times, she weighed exactly the same.  (I'm always pleased when there's no weight gain.)

I weighed her again this morning - exactly 7 days since her last meeting with the scale.  After this one, I felt like a very bad mother.  No, she didn't gain any weight.  In fact, she lost 0.9 lbs!  I've read that cats shouldn't lose more than 0.2 lbs per week.  I've fed her the same amount of food that I usually do, the only difference is I haven't been sitting to watch her eat it.  The other cats no longer went after her food while I was there so I assumed that they also left her alone when I wasn't in the room.

Obviously I've been mistaken.  The little snots (aka - the other cats) must be bullying her and taking her food as soon as I'm out of sight.  Although Sam can be crabby with me, she won't stop the others from taking her food.  This also explains her extreme orneriness lately.  The poor thing must have been starving.  I'm back on patrol duty now though so I know she'll get all of her food. 

Now that she's down to 15 lbs (from a high of 18.1), you can really see the physical changes in her.  She has bags of skin that hang down.  It's particularly obvious on her elbows and makes her legs look so short.

I suppose she could benefit from a tummy tuck, but that's not going to happen.

I'm grateful that she's feeling a whole lot better now.  She can make jumps that she couldn't before and her joints don't make the same noises.  Still a little more ways to go though, but hopefully at a much slower pace.

So Sam's stats are now...

• Starting Weight - 17.9 lbs
• Target Weight - less than 14 lbs
• Last Weigh-in - 15.9 lbs
• Current Weight - 15.0 lbs
• Net loss - 0.9 lbs
• Total Weight Lost - 2.9 lbs

Until later...

Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment. 

Proverbs 9:10 (NLT)

200 miles!

Another milestone today...

200 Miles on the Stationary Bike!

I hit 100 miles on my stationary bike last July after which I took a bit of a hiatus.  Most of this second 100 miles has happened in the last couple of months.  I wonder if I could possibly hit 300 by the end of the summer.  Perhaps...

Until later...

“You have begun to live the new life, in which you are being made new and are becoming like the One who made you.”  

Colossians 3:10a (NCV)

Absolutely useless trivia...

As I was laying in bed the other night, I got to wondering what my pets would look like if they were human.  What I was really thinking was how vastly different my two cats, Moses and David, are in size and how that would translate to us.  So I went looking online to convert pet stats to humans and this is what I came up with...

Pet Stats

• Moses (female cat) is 9.8 lbs and 6 years 8 months old
• Jack (female cat) is 12.6 lbs and 10 years 7 months old
• Sam (female cat) is 15.8 lbs and 10 years 7 months old
• David (male cat) is 21.5 lbs and 2 years old
• Gabriel (female dog) is 57.6 lbs and 4 years 11 months old

Comparable Human Stats

• Moses is 98 lbs and 43.7 years old
• Jack is 126 lbs and 59.3 years old
• Sam is 158 lbs and 59.3 years old
• David is 215 lbs and 25.2 years old
• Gabriel is 36 years old  (I don't know what the correlation in her weight would be other than she's fat.)

There's no real use to this information, I just thought it was interesting.  So when I see Moses and David together now, I can picture them as a 98 lb female being stalked by a 215 lb male.  It gives me more sympathy for her.  Not that David wants to hurt her; he just likes to be around her.  On the other hand, she can't stand him.

By the way, I just told Mr. Quilting Bug how old Gabriel is compared to us and his reply was, "I don't like to think of her as being that old."  I kindly pointed out to him that I am currently 36 about to turn 37.  Hmmm.

Until later...

"Be angry and do not sin ..." 

 Ephesians 4:26 (ESV)

Stash Report Week #16...

April 16 - 22, 2011

A little bit of stuff to report this week.  All of it having to do with the retreat I'm leaving for on Wednesday.  I'm still in a mad dash to finish getting ready for the classes I'm going to teach as well as gathering everything I need to bring for the rest of the time.  Most of the fabric I purchased this week is earmarked for some games we'll be playing (Fat Quarter Bingo and Strip Poker - with 2.5" strips) as well as a swap and some fabric to make a rope bowl (this is a class I'll be taking).

Fabric for the games and swaps

Fabric for my rope bowl (Vintage Groove by Adorn It)

Of all the fabric I purchased, only 2 yards is making it's way into my stash.

As for what I've used this week, I've finished making the kits for the Chickadee class I'll be teaching.  Here are the fabrics I used for the kits...

Fabrics for Chickadee Kits

I purchased several of the fabrics, but most of them came from my stash.  I used a total of 4 yards for these.

So...
Purchased-this-week: 2 yards
Used-this-week: 4 yards
Purchased-to-date: 77.25 yards
Used-to-date: 68.5 yards
Net used: -8.75 yards

I'll be making a trip to Mary Jo's while I'm away and I'm sure that will have some impact on next week's numbers.

Until later...

We love because He first loved us.  

1 John 4:19 (HCSB)

Class Sample...

I've been working hard on it and have finally managed to finish the sample for a class I'm teaching end of next week.  It's on Back-Basting Hand Applique, which is my preferred method for hand applique.  Here is a picture of the finished block..

Chickadee Class Sample

My original plan was to add a series of borders and make this into a small wall hanging.  However, I like how it turned out so much that I'm seriously thinking about creating additional bird blocks and making an entire quilt.  My husband has a bird watching book which would be very helpful in developing patterns.  Of course, my to-do list is pretty long right now so whatever I decide it will have to wait a while.

In other news, we tried taking the cone off Gabriel yesterday.  She'd been wearing it for 5 days straight.  However, as soon as she had access she went right for her toe and started licking.  So the cone is back on and we'll have to endure it for at least a couple more days.  I jokingly suggested she went after her toe just so we'd have to put the cone back on.  It's not slowing her down a bit and she may enjoy terrorizing the rest of the family with it.

Until later...

So then, we must pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another.  

Romans 14:19 (HCSB)

Space planning...

In my last post, I shared some pictures of my sewing room.  Although I intend to keep the contents of all the shelving units the same, I am planning to move all of the furniture around.

Several years ago, I made myself a miniature model of my sewing room and the furniture in it.  It's perfectly to scale with 1" = 1'.  It made it so easy to come up with a space plan before having my husband and brother help with the heavy lifting.  I kept it after the last move, so I pulled it out again to play with.  This is the current layout of the room.

I was hoping to put down hard wood floors some years ago, but it was just too expensive to justify so I still have carpet in there.  I built a number of the model pieces using balsa wood, but towards the end I was getting tired and resorted to paper for the rest.  The big red box on the right is my quilting frame.

It's so easy to pick up the pieces and move them around, seeing what will work and what won't.  I know those doing the actual moving are grateful that I've figured it out ahead of time.

The only thing I don't have in here is the couch.  My  husband has told me that it is the one nonnegotiable feature to this room.  It was almost impossible to get in and he has no intention of ever removing it.  I suppose if we ever move, he'll probably chop it up into pieces to get it out.  Which would be a shame, because it's a super comfy sofa.

You can see that I even made up curtains and shades for the model.  Although I made that exact roman shade for the room, I never did get around to making the valance.  For this iteration, I'm going to removed the shade and put a frosted film on the window.  That will give me both light and privacy.  We did that in our master bathroom when we renovated it and it has worked out great.  And after all of the window film I installed last year in the house, I'm virtually a pro at it now.

I haven't really begun to play with the new layout.  I really want to finish going through everything in the room first.  Plus I'm going to be out of town at the end of the month and I'm still busy preparing for the classes I'm going to teach.  Perhaps I can really start tackling that aspect of it in May - along with a zillion other house projects.  My honey-do list is growing exponentially.

Until later...

My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing your praises! 

Psalm 57:7 (NLT)

Stash Report Week #15 and updates on my sewing room...

April 9-15, 2011

Still not much happening on the sewing front.  Nothing in and nothing out this week.  So that takes care of the Stash Report portion of this blog post.  But I have made some good progress in organizing my sewing room.  Here are a few progress pictures...

I've asked my husband for a small flat panel TV for my birthday that will fit on top of the shelves.  Then I can move the large, bulky TV out of there.  It would be nice to have an internet enabled one so I can watch NetFlix and listen to Pandora on it.

Each of the black baskets here holds fat quarters that coordinate with the yardage beside it.  The clear containers with the white lids to the left of the TV hold my collection of 2.5" strips.  They're also organized by color and theme.

I love having it so organized now.  It's almost an OCD thing for me.  These baskets hold either pre-cuts (charm packs, FQ bundles, layer cakes and jelly rolls) or all of the fabric for a planned quilting project.  And see the black basket with the big dots on it?  That's where I'm getting my color scheme for the room.

More baskets hold additional projects and collections of fabric.

I need two more of the black mesh baskets to finish this corner out.  On the bottom row, there are 2 projects just waiting for their own basket.  I bought both the black cubes and the baskets from Target, but they were out of the mesh ones last time I went.  I think I've been buying them faster than they can restock them.

I'm more than halfway done with the organization and I've already gone through all of my fabric.  Fortunately I've been able to donate a lot of it to my mom as well as different people and organizations.  I didn't count what I gave away, but figure it's probably about 300 yards.  But it was fabric I don't think I would have used so it's found a better home.  I still need to go through a couple cabinets of notions, my quilting books and the stuff under my quilting frame.  Slowly but surely I'm getting there.  I also want to repaint all of the shelving units in here with white lacquer and the walls a gray/taupe color.  That will be a huge undertaking because there are 8 bookcases, an armoire, 2 sets of shelves with 9 cubbies and 6 sets of shelves with 6 cubbies.

I have a mental picture of how great it's going to look when I'm done.  I hope the reality matches up with my vision.  On another note, my dear husband is talking about moving again and is looking for land in the area to build a new house.  I'm open to the idea if we can find the perfect lot and house plan (1-story), but I'd also be quite happy to stay where we are.  Of course, I'm open to whatever plans God has for us even if it's something completely different from ours.

Until later...

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  

Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)