See my garden grow!!

What a beautiful morning, I just couldn't resist taking some pictures around my gardens. This picture is the trellis my husband built for me. I had trumpet vines and honeysuckle growing up a small dead tree so they ended up in a tangled heap when the tree went down. I love the new trellis much better than the old tree.




One of my little clumps of "hens & chickens" started forming a flower tower and it gets bigger by the day. I've never seen one do this before, so I guess I have it in just the right spot.




I bought this wild flower plant at the Farmer's Market last year. It only had one bloom last year, but this year "WOW" it's really taken off and has several blooms. I'm thinking its called Prairie Fire of something like that. Whatever it is I really like it.




I have one word for my vegetable garden "CUCUMBERS"!!!! I'm getting a ton of cucumbers, I think they're growing over night. I keep watching my cantaloupe and waiting for them to ripen, I love cantaloupe!! I have a few peppers, but they haven't turned red yet and I like the red ones better than the green peppers. I've gotten enough cherry tomatoes daily for a salad and I have lots of green tomatoes getting ready to ripen. For my first veggie garden in several years I quite happy with it, but next year it is definitely going to have to be bigger.

Baby quilt

I was asked to make a baby quilt for a little boys first birthday. His brother has a baby quilt with his name on it, but little Gus doesn't have one. His mother picked out the fabric and I came up with the little animals and made a farm theme quilt. These designs were a learning experience because I finally discovered how to digitize pictures to make my own designs!!





I had some fun finding pictures of the farm animals and digitizing them to make the embroidery pictures. Actually I've become addicted to it and have so many new ideas now that I don't know where to start first!!

Aprons

I finished this apron a few minutes ago, it was a custom order. Since I didn't have a pattern for a man's apron I used my husbands grilling apron as a pattern.





This apron I made for a quilt retreat challenge, we were give the funky flowered fabric and then had to make something with it. I used the front of a pair of jeans as the apron and a part of one of the legs for the apron bib. The butterflies and flower were appliqued onto the jeans. I still have the back of the jeans to do something with so they will probably be an apron real soon also.

Ending my HCG diet

I reached my goal weight and actually am a few lbs below my goal now. I am doing the third day of the step down which basically gets the HCG hormone out of my system and sets my metabolism. Tomorrow I start gradually increasing my calorie count up to 1200 calories. From there I can add in more foods and then increase to about 1300 or 1400 calories depending on how I'm doing and watch very close that I don't gain any weight. I have to limit the carbs and sugar forever, so yep it is a lifetime change, but so worth it. We live on a hill and this week I was able to walk up our driveway nonstop without huffing and puffing or needing to stop to catch my breath!!! Then I walked for about 30 minutes without my hips and knees hurting, I was so happy I could have cried. I'm sure I have added several years to my life by just losing the 65+ lbs!!!!!

GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!

YES!!! I made my goal to lose 65 lbs! It took me 7 months and not once did I cheat or get off my diet!! My new goal is to maintain for that dreaded first year and not gain any back!

Diet Update

Well I have been bad at keeping up with by blog, but I am so busy with retirement the time just seems to slip by. I just got back from an awesome quilt retreat in Oklahoma and met some great ladies. We had a wonderful time sewing, making quilts, talking, sewing, and sewing some more.

I am now on the last few days of my diet and my weight loss total right now is 62 lbs, so I only have 3 more lbs to go for my goal weight!! I can't believe how fast the weight has come off and I've gone from a size 16+ to a size 8. I am so looking forward to summer and not being embarrassed to wear shorts and swimsuits.

My latest purse creations

I recycle a few things to make this unique purse. The purse itself started out as a skirt I found for $1.00 at the Good Will. I loved the zipper pockets on the front and back so I snatched it up right away.



The inside and handles is a piece of upholstery fabric which I think gives it a sort of Southwest feel.



This closure clasp is the ends off a strap I found while digging through my belt box. This was the solution to my problem of finding something that would work between the two buttons on the waistband.



Lastly the leather strips and the leather conchos were off of an old belt I had in my stash. I love picking up unusual belts at the good will!


This is another purse I made from a skirt, I loved the red-white-&blue rhinestones on this skirt and just had to use it. It was another find at the second hand shop for $1.00!!


I used a belt for handles on this one also, but the it took me a while to figure out how to get the leather pieces attached for the closure. After breaking three machine needles I finally just sewed them on by hand, it took a bit longer but it worked much better than breaking all my needles!