Giving is the GREATEST!!!

Hi friends in the blogging world.  Today I am writing about a very important subject.  The topic of Leukemia.  There is a little boy in Denver named Eryk that was recently diagnosed with Leukemia.  His family was only supposed to be in Colorado for one year.  His father is a geologist that was working on a grant in Colorado the past year.  Eryk was diagnosed in November.  The doctors say that he needs to stay in Colorado to finish his treatment and that it is dangerous to move him back to Poland.  Unfortunately the health insurance that they carry in Poland does not work here, so the medical bills are piling up.  See more about Eryk's story at the link below.
See the video on 9News.com

Here is where you all come in.  The Polish Club of Denver is putting together a benefit fundraiser/auction for the family.  All the proceeds will go toward paying for the families medical bills.  We are asking for donations in the form gift certificates for goods and services.  These certificates will be auctioned off at the benefit.  I know that several of you have Etsy sites so if you would like to donate a certificate for some type of online store that would be great.

I know that this family will be grateful for anything that you can give.  If the only thing that you can send is prayers that would be appreciated too.  This little boy needs a fighting chance and this is the best thing that we can do to help him.  Please email me of leave a comment below if there is anyway that you can help.  Thank you.

Mantel

Today my cousin Katie and I are making the two hour drive to Kremmling Co to pick up a piece of wood for my mantel. It is an eight foot long piece of beetle kill pine. If you haven't seen beetle kill wood it is gorgeous and has blue and grey streaks through it. The markings are left over from the parasitic little insects. If you can I suggest googling it and checking it out.

Half up do

The tutorial on thesmallthingsblog.com for the elegant half up turns out does not work so well with my short of hair. Oh well I tried and it sort of turned out cute. I think that I'll have better luck once my hair gets longer.

http://www.thesmallthingsblog.com/2011/09/elegant-half-up.html?m=1

New Year's Resolutions 2012

I am starting this year off with a bang.  I am making some seriously hard goals and I am determined to achieve them. 

Resolution #1:  Lose 20 pounds.  This may sound like a lot to some of you and may sound like just a tip of the ice berg for others, but I think that this is a good goal for me.  I am 5'-4" and weight 158 pounds (as of yesterday).  I know that I am overweight and I feel it in my day to day life.  Some people may say that I look good, but like everyone could stand to lose a few pounds, but the truth is that I feel like crap.  I eat crappy and I feel like I am zapped of all of my energy all the time.  I really don't like this feeling and I think that it is more than time to do something about it.  Aaron and I are getting married this year and thinking about starting a family at some point in the future and I want both of us to be around for our children, grand children, and even great grandchildren. 

Execution:  To achieve this goal and I am going to extreme measures.  Last year Aaron and I went on a carb free and sugar free diet.  Not easy but totally doable.  We lasted about 6 to 8 weeks and then blew it when we went on a vacation.  During that time Aaron lost about 15 pounds and I lost about 10 (I have only gained about half of it back though so we are making progress!!!).  I know that we can do this and I feel confident that with a little pre-planning I should be able to stick to my goals with no problem.  The hardest part about being on this type of diet last time was that you really need to plan ahead.  You have to prepare all of your meals and snacks ahead of time so that you are not looking for convenience food when you get hungry.  The other part that sucked super bad with cutting out carbs and sugars is that you go through sugar withdrawal.  I don't drink soda or juice or eat candy or anything like that but by day three I wanted to kill someone because of the massive pounding that was going on inside my head.  The reason for it (even without the soda and candy) is that all carbs once they are ingested turn directly to sugar so that your body can use them as energy (not used they turn into fat).  And trust me you would not believe how much sugar (or sucrose) that we intake and our body cannot use.  We are pigs!!!! carb eating pigs!!!!  So I know that it is a little extreme and some of you are thinking that I have lost it and how can you live with out bread or potatoes or that daily soda, but I think that I can do it.  I have done it before and I will do it again, but this time I will step it up a notch and reach my goals.  This time I will also be adding an exercise routine in the mix.  I will tell you more about it later once I get started and wrap my head around my 30 minute daily workout.

Resolution #2:  Post weekly on my blog.  I have fallen off the band wagon a few times over the life of my blog and I am sick of it.  I find blogging fun and interesting.  I love reading what everyone else has to share and I just need to make time for my blogging buddies.

Execution:  I am a creative person so I am going to start posting new items that have to do with my crafting and etsy shop.  I am am also going to have a stream that is related to my resolution #1 and blog about what I am eating and the weight that I am losing.  Also I will post about the exercises that I am doing.  Maybe some of you will follow along and we can lose weight together by sharing pointers and motivation.

Resolution #3:  Get a job.

Execution:  Nail this interview that I have coming up at the end of this week.

I am sure that I will think of some more things that I can do to better myself, but this is what I am going to start with for now.  I can't wait to get started and kick these resolutions in the ass.  Whooohooo to 2012.

Master Bedroom Completion

 I have finally completed my master bedroom project.  The walls were painted over a year ago.  The upper part of the walls is a tea green color and the lower part of the wall is a olive green dark dark color.  Back in September we got new carpet.  In November I made some awesome new art for the walls.  So the final touches happened when we got some snazzy new night stands from IKEA.  They mount to the wall and I can vacuum all the way under them....so basically that rocks. 

I also painted some lamps that I got at a garage sale.  It was an awful wood and gold color and I spray painted it a dark chocolate brown color.  I also got new lamp shades for these beautiful new lamps.  They remind me of an old Victorian style shade minus the fringe.  They give some soft lines to the otherwise very linear room.  The final touches added to the room were pictures of Aaron and I in the new large frames that I got for the long wall in the room.  I chose to use pictures from different vacations that we had been on.  From left to right it is a picture of the ocean on our trip to San Fransisco in October, a picture in Arches National Monument earlier this year, and a Colorado mountain picture from one of our many 4wheeling adventures near Rollins Pass.  And finally over the desk I hung a frame that I already had and put in it Sepia prints of our engagement photos.  Some of the photos really turned out great.

See my "Linky Party" page to see where I am going to link up this week.

Guest Pillows

This is my first attempt at pillows.  I know that pillows aren't very hard but they are harder for someone who really doesn't know what she is doing. 

I used the leftover fabric from the headboard and the sewing machine stool to make the pillows.  They turned out a little lopsided but I tried really hard.

I didn't have very much of the blue fabric left so I let this pillow look a little more ragged.  I created a flower by gathering strips of fabric and spiraling them.  I think if I add buttons to the back of the pillows they might keep their form a little better.  These pillows are all just covers.  I used the pattern in Kara's blog.

I think that maybe my next pillows will turn out better.  I will be making new pillows to go in my new living room soon.  We are doing a total remodel.  I will be posting pictures soon.

Take care everyone and have a great week.

Kara

Hello again blogging world

Wow what a busy couple of weeks.  I have been absent for I think three weeks now.  I would blame it on a lot of things but what it boils down to is that I have not been very creative lately and really feel that I have nothing to share.  But I am back at it now and hope that I have not let you all down in my absence.

The week of Thanksgiving we went to Iowa to visit Aaron's family.  We had a really good time, but the trip started off with a few bangs.  A few days before we were supposed to leave on the Amtrak train we got a phone call that said that our train had been cancelled.  Apparently there was a fire out to the west of us (we are in Colorado) and they had to shut down the entire line from San Francisco all the way to Chicago.  It was a crazy closure and I am not even sure when they finally reopened it.  So we had to skip to plan B.  We drove.  On the way out there we had a hitch haul on the back of the jeep with our clothes and some presents and stuff on it.  We were a few short miles from our Iowa destination when Aaron noticed that the exhaust had burnt a hole in the bottom of the bag with our clothes in it.  This was just great!!!!  Four of Aaron's shirts were completely ruined (I think that I am going to make pot holders or something out of them...stay tuned) and had holes burned completely through them.  But the luckiest thing is that we are safe, the dogs are safe, and let's face it, it is a darn good thing that it all didn't catch fire.

The very next week I spent playing catch up. The exciting thing that happened that week was that I had my hearing for my unemployment dispute and guess what I WON!!!!!!  They really had no grounds to fire me and there should have been no dispute all along.  But I guess that is what you get when you have a guy on a power trip that is trying to hold onto his own job.  He will get what is coming to him someday.  Karma is a funny thing.

Last week however was really really exciting.  I had a job interview on Tuesday that had been scheduled for over a month.  It is for a sales job, which is something that I have never REALLY done before but I am really excited for this prospect.  The guy who interviewed me was super nice and I think that we really might have hit it off.  The only mistake that I made was not outright asking him for the job.  In a previous interview he said that "This is sales, at the end of every conversation you have to ask for the sale".  In this case I was supposed to be selling myself.  But the good news out of my self-proclaimed blunder is that I got to the next step of the interview.  I get to go on a ride along with one of the local sales guys tomorrow.  I am super nervous and excited all at the same time.  I am not sure what to wear so I am going to go raid my next door neighbors closet when she gets home tonight.  I have never really had to dress up to a job before so I really don't have the right kind of clothes for this stuff.  I only own 3 pairs of dress pants, one suit-ish (it's still pretty casual) and about a thousand skirts.   But I can't really wear the skirts right now; number one because of the weather and number two because this is the construction industry.  You can only wear skirts after you get the job and you know where you will be going from day to day.  A skirt is not on the OSHA approved list of job site wear.  LOL  Can you imagine a skirt, high heels, and a hard hat working with a large power tool?  That is a really funny sight and would certainly get a lot of strange looks.

So the other exciting thing that happened last week was that I got a call from another engineering office and they are looking for some temporary help at the beginning of the year, so who knows if this other thing does not work out maybe something else will fall into it's place.


So now that I am done playing catch up with my life it is on to today's fun and exciting new craft.  I like to call this "One skein warmth".

I bought a skein of Impeccable yarn from Loop's and Thread's (I think) at Micheal's.  They have such a great variety of colors.  I personally love the variegated ones.  For both the wrist warmers and neck warmer you will need just one skein of yarn, size 10 knitting needles, size G crochet hook, and 4 buttons that will fit through the holes but not slip out.  For the neck warmer you need cast on 70 stitches and for the wrist warmers cast on about 22 to 24 stitches.  Use a rib stitch pattern (either K1, P1 OR K2, P2) until they are each about as long as you want them.  Finish off the edges with a scalloped edge using your crochet hook.  These are super easy and super cute.  I hope that you enjoy this simple (not complete pattern). 

If you can't make them yourself but still would like a pair, check out my etsy shop for great deals.  Don't forget to enter the "Friend" coupon code at checkout for free shipping.