Some cook, I sew and write: creativity brings joy

 Reporting in on the journey with the Isagenix Collagen Elixir at 17 days! I’m 17 days into this Collagen Elixir trial, recovering from not much sleep, and hating that I didn’t smile at least a little bit in my first picture! I don’t like documenting my non-smiling self.  Smiles bring joy! So Day 000 with no collagen elixir in my system.  Zip, zero, nada. And today.  I know the backgrounds are different. I’m traveling. There’s not a lot I can do about that. I’m sorry.  I still have dark bags, but I think the puffiness under my eye is lessening. The skin is soft and doesn’t feel dry anymore. That’s a BIG deal. The dark? Umm, heredity so a bit harder to eliminate. I’m not saying impossible, just to be clear! The lines around my mouth are a little less chiseled. I’ll take it! I much prefer smiling pictures.  Much more personality! I remember watching my dad and his smile lines and realizing that if I was going to have lines, I wanted more smiling lines than fr...

 I received my Collagen Elixir yesterday and immediately drank my first bottle. Tasty! Here's Day 1 picture: This morning, I drank a bottle as soon as I got up because it's just the right amount of sweet.  Not too much and not too little! Day 2: It's windy outside, and I took my puppy for a walk.  He's sacked out now.  Learning to walk with me instead of racing after leaves scuttling across the sidewalk taxed him (and me) pretty hard!   Puppy: He's 16 weeks old.  We've had him for 7 weeks now. He and my son Steven have good times playing!

Experiments .  When is the last time you experimented with something?   Cooking? Sewing ? Quilting? New project management technique? Today I decided I was going to try an experiment with a collagen product that Isagenix offers.  I have found I'm cautious about posting pictures of myself, and none without smiling, because I am very aware of smile lines.  A few years ago a fellow at a mall kiosk put a product on my face that was supposed to last for 5 days.  It worked, but I thought the cost was prohibitive.  I decided to try a daily product from another source but my husband suggested I take a look at what Isagenix offered.  I have learned more and more about Isagenix products as he has continued to use their products in his pursuit of weight loss and pain management. So here's my experiment.  I ordered the Beauty Afterglow Bundle.  I'm going to take pictures every day although I won't bore you with daily pictures--maybe weekly.  Let's s...

When my kids were young and money was super tight, Christmas was stressful.  And then a friend introduced me to dollar stores.  Oh, what a find!!! I could take my kids Christmas shopping for their siblings without breaking the bank. Fast forward to my youngest child in high school and beyond.  She loves exploring the inner nooks of dollar stores more than most people.  She LOVES to decorate for every holiday imaginable but she's careful with money.   Enter dollar stores.  To be specific, Dollar Tree. It's a beautiful thing because everything is exactly $1.  So if you have $5 and change, you can buy 5 items.  (Don't forget some change or you can only buy 4 items and still pay tax. The addiction is real.  I dropped in for posterboard today.  A big sheet of white posterboard is only 50 cents.  That's right.  50 pennies!  If that's what you've got, they'll take the pennies.  (Be kind to the cashier though and don't b...

Today it's a balmy 77 degrees outside with 70 percent humidity, and I took my dog for a walk.  I had grand designs of going and walking the Rocky Ridge Reservation later today, but THAT's not going to happen now!  It's far too muggy.  I'm beat! Last night I put the finishing touches on the quilt I started 7 months ago.  It's a throw quilt designed by Angela Walters for a virtual quilt along, Help! How Do I Quilt It?   that she did late 2019.  The border is not part of Angela's panel.  I started this in January.  After quilting ferociously for a few months, my hands started yelling at me with arthritis pain so I backed off.  Life intervened, COVID19 happened, and I went to help my parents in another state.   Coming home, I didn't even want to touch my sewing machine, let along free motion quilt! After several weeks, I decided I needed to finish the project.  After all, I was almost finished already.  That said, I didn't wa...

Last Saturday, my husband, son, and I went for a drive to see some covered bridges, specifically the two longest and shortest (18 feet) in the United States within about 1 1/2 hours of our home.  I hope you enjoy some of these pictures. The shortest!  Travelers had to pay a toll to use it! Why do you keep taking pictures of me, Mom? Go see Aerial Blend on Instagram for some of my husband's photography!

Once again, I've been so much better at posting on Instagram but I resolve to do better!  In fact, I'm resolving to study better and write more in the coming months mostly because I think we all have a need to pay much more attention to the blessings of God during this time of the COVID19 pandemic.  Personally, I think this is only a beginning of more challenges but I believe there are many, many blessings to reap during challenges.  I've also known it is important to pay attention to blessings and to learn when things are good, but the hard times define us by what we decide to focus on. As a result, I am tweaking this blog a bit to help me and hopefully you find the good and great things in our lives. Another reason for my change is because I've found the strain on my wrists and thumbs has been too great for me to continue quilting.  After thinking through my options, I decided to pivot to sewing and joyful creation. So I took up bagmaking to use up some of m...