Monthly Archives: September 2011

Day 10 of 101: A little hike to start the day

In need of patches.

I ditched my cycle and pilates classes this morning to take the dog on a hike along the Star Trail. And I’m gonna say that Friday hikes might need to become a thing.

The dawgface and I spent quality time together; I brainstormed up and down the mountain; and I burned as many calories during the hike as I would have during cycle class.

Also? Dawgface has been sleeping on the couch since we got back and only got up long enough to bark at one of the neighbor dogs coming back from its noontime poop.

Future hike: leave after breakfast, get back just before lunch?

Day 9 of 101: My Day in Food

(Ummm, do you know that I simply forgot to blog yesterday?! I had it all planned, and then suddenly it’s bedtime and I think “wha-wha-wha-whaaaat?” In any case, here I am a day late!

I’m borrowing this idea from a blog friend, Anastasia. I always love when her Wednesday Food Diary pop in my reader, so I thought I’d give it a go!

Yarmy.

Who’s the lucky lady whose husband makes her a cup of coffee every single morning? (Me. The lucky lady is me.)

Pre-sunrise photo. Can you tell?

Most mornings, breakfast is toast topped with a little butter and an egg, over easy.

I’m incredibly routine with most of my meals, but especially breakfast: I come home from the gym, start sipping my coffee, make Patrick’s lunch, slice and toast my bread, fry my egg, plate it, and start eating at our little breakfast counter as I read the paper. (The comics. I read the comics. Sometimes I read an advice column that tells people when they’re being straight-up dumb/crazy/stupid in relationships.)

It edges on dessert.

After breakfast I headed to the gym for my Wednesday Body Flow class. I have a late-morning gym class nearly every day of the week, and when I get back to the apartment I like to fill up with some fruit. Here: apple with the almond butter I made last week and a touch of honey.

Easy leftover lunch.

This little bowl: leftover pasta from one my fifty-recipe-challenge recipes (101 Cookbooks’ Macaroni Salad), with a dollop of homemade chicken salad …

It speaks for itself.

… followed quickly by a square of Olive and Sinclair chocolate. It’s handcrafted chocolate, made in Nashville, Tenn. This was their 75% bar. Places I’ve bought this bar before: Old City Java in Knoxville, Tenn.; and French Broad Chocolates in Asheville, N.C. I’m hoping they stock it at Fresh Market here in town …

It's my favorite part of the day.

Midafternoon coffee: in this case, to accompany my tote-bag project. Success!

Fresh.

Apple snack. (From our take at Johnson’s Orchard, of course).

{NO PHOTO!}

My camera died before I could snap my dinner, which is too bad because it was delicious: Leftover black beans (using this Eat, Live, Run recipe), plus sauteed mushrooms to stretch them; topped with crispy bacon; alongside whole wheat bread and another fried egg. It was flippin’ good.

And to finish out the day, another bite of chocolate.

Perfect end.

Happiness.

Day 8 of 101: Sewing is like spreadsheets

It’s problem-solving. Spreadsheets, sewing … it’s all problem-solving.

That’s what I realized when I attempted my second mini tote muslin (this time complete with a little handle). Ultimately I wanted to use this Sewing 101 tutorial by Kim for my full-size muslin. In the meantime, I realized I needed to create and solve my own handle-on-bag problem.

Because that’s where my brain really lights up.

Same with spreadsheets. I can look at formulas and forum Q&As only so long before I have to acknowledge that I won’t really understand how A+B=C until I try to make it work myself. And I like to think that in generating my own problems (and discovering my own solutions), I learn and create things that I would otherwise wouldn’t.

So I set out to create a tiny little bag with a single handle. I followed Kim’s basic directions for the bag but left out a liner. So: how to create a nice upper hem?; how to afix the handle?

The Lindsay Mini Tote Muslin

For this project, I made my first acquaintance with the seam ripper (this one came with my sewing machine).

tote and seam ripper

The first problem to solve was making the handle. I prefer the style suggested in that tutorial (here’s a detail photo), but I wasn’t yet confident enough to sew that near the seam. What I did was cut a nice fat strip of fabric, fold it in half (lengthwise), sew it shut, and pull it inside out. Then I ironed it (seam to the back) and finished it with those “decorative” edges.

tote handle

Next problem to solve: Attaching the handle to the (as yet unsewn) bag. (I wish I’d taken photos as I was going, but all my energy was focused on “now how the heck am I gonna …”). I don’t know that I can properly describe how I did it or exactly why, but I can tell you that I spent about twenty minutes just looking, folding, head-tilting, finger-to-pursed-lipping. Followed my seam-ripping. In any case, I ended up with this setup:

handle on bag 1

tote handle 2

… and clearly it’s not the way to go. Look at that bulk! But I found a solution, which was really the point.

After the handle was sewn to the bag fabric, I finished up the upper hems of that bag and sewed the side seams together.

tote side seams

I like this little bag. I can see my determination built into it.

finished tote

And the extra-happy ending

Today I had the chutzpah to attempt seams close to an edge. And do you know what I figured out? HUH?

That you can friggin’ adjust your needle position so it sews closer to the edge of a seam. Holy crap, if I’d realized that earlier …

It was still difficult and I ended up sewing those seams at the machine’s slowest speed. No problem. I’ve got time.

And after many, many long moments (and some seam-ripping), I followed all the instructions in that tutorial and created this little beauty:

big tote

big tote 2

Now — dare I cut into my fancy fabrics to finally make a proper bag? And will I be brave enough to add inner pockets? …

PS

Look at those near-edge seams!

seams!

Day 7 of 101: A little bit of this, a little bit of that

You know, I haven’t had a hard time once waking up for the gym. I got there this morning ready to run (my longest stretch in the couch-to-5k training yet: three solid minutes!).

When I got done with my workouts today, I had a zillion things I wanted to do today (OK, four): sew another tote muslin; learn more about DIY, all-natural home cleaners; write letters to friends and family; and make sure to use up the perishable foods in our fridge (and work toward my fifty-recipe challenge).

So this is what my day looks like …

writing letters

Can’t wait to get these in the post.

tote muslin

“SECOND TOTE MUSLIN w/ handles (& straight lines??)”

making pancakes

We have Homestead Creamery milk in the fridge near its last legs. What better way to use it than in pancakes? I’ll put them in the freezer for Patrick to pull out for breakfasts.

macaroni salad

One of my fifty recipes will be this one, 101 Cookbooks’ Macaroni Salad. I’ll bake up some bacon as well. Seems like it’ll make a good match.

home comforts

This is just one of the places I’m starting to find information about how to clean with baking soda, vinegar, etc. I’ll write up what I find out and how it works.

Day 6 of 101: Weekly health stats

You know what super-excites me? Oh yeah you do. Because I’ve written about it. Speadsheets.

My tracking tools are making a fierce comeback during my 101 Days Project.

Now that I’ve finished up my first week, it’s time to publish and analyze …

Daily water intake

water intake

As you can see, I’m finding it hard to get into a good routine with my water bottle. The light blue area is my goal of 64 oz. a day and I reached it only a couple of times. I’m not too worried; just need to find my new rhythm.

Weekly points consumed

weekly points consumed

This is the most complicated spreadsheet, so here’s a refresher:

The straight, maroon line cutting across the graph: My daily allotment of 29 points. I can eat more than this, I shouldn’t eat less than this.

The huge, light blue area falling across the graph: The extra points I’m allotted, plus the activity points I earn through exercise. I use some of these points throughout the week, which is why it decreases over time.

The dark blue line between: The actual points I consume each day. It’s easy to see which days I consume extra points, and which days I stick with the twenty-nine allotted.

What we see above is that most days I consumed more than the 29 points, and by the end of the week I left only a few extra points on the table.

Calories burned

calories burned

My goal is 2,000 calories a week (that big, light-blue area). I finished the week at about 1,400 (the growing blue line across the graph). And I got to the gym almost daily (that green line floating across the bottom of the graph, showing each day’s calorie-burn). I’m happy, especially considering how much this first week wore me out. I’ll be interested to see what I do by the end of this week (because my plan, of course, is to get to every single class and push harder than I did last week).

Weight

weight

(A reminder: I want to create a narrow range for my Y axis so that the small fluctuations in weight are more visible. For some reason Google only allows me to do this if I use negative numbers. So when you see the line go up, it represents weight loss; down, it represents gain.)

So I ended the week slightly heavier (129.6 lbs) than I started it (129 lbs), with what had been a promising, steady decline inbetween. I’m not in panic mode, though, I’m in analysis mode.

So what I’m thinking is that I’ll attempt to distribute my extra food points evenly throughout this week, and stick with healthy options on the weekend. (What my points chart above doesn’t show is that on the weekends, I tend to indulge in fattier and more sugary options after Thursday.)

We’ll just see if that doesn’t keep my weight loss steady.

Overall?

My choices overall are good, and I know how to adjust them.

I expect that I’ll be feeling a whole lot more fit by the end of this week or next (a good exercise routine shows itself quickly). Looking forward to that. It’s that feeling that tends to become my greatest motivator, and I miss it something fierce.

Day 5 of 101: Apple-picking

We might have snacked on apples.

Yes. Yes we are this adorable in real life. We do things like go apple-picking in orchards.

Patrick spotted a Groupon for Johnson’s Orchards in Bedford (a peck of apples for $5!), and we headed out to collect our take yesterday.

You’ll have to excuse me for being late with this Day 5 post, but I was too busy making a free-form apple pie, and trying my hand at apple butter. It turned out purty and tasty. It looks something like this:

Patrick helped me chop more than five pounds of apples. I put them in the crock pot, added spices, and waited. In the meantime, the concoction filled the apartment with a really pleasant aroma of autumn.

I used the All Day Apple Butter recipe from allrecipes.com, with these notes:

1. The recipe calls for 4 cups of white sugar. I used 2 cups white, 1 cup brown. I might even pull back on the sugar next time (and there will be a next time).

2. I maxed out the time, cooking on low for eleven hours, then the additional one hour uncovered.

3. I transfered the finished mash (still chunky with apple) to our food processor and blended until it was smooth.

4. The recipe says the yield is 4 pints; I got three. That might be because of my longer cooking time and less sugar.

More pictures

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day (you can see the whole slideshow, too).

Pickin' family

Warning: If you a dumb turd, you might die. We will not be held responsible if you are a dumb turd.

Johnson's Orchard

Johnny Appleseed, of course

Pick a peck.

Day 4 of 101: My workout schedule

Week 1. I look good, but could feel a whole lot better.

Among the outlines and plans I drafted before starting my one-hundred-and-one days was my workout schedule. And it’s ambitious.

The schedule

Monday
5:00 a.m. — Crunches, stretching, warm-up walk
5:45 a.m. — Cycle class (45 minutes)

Tuesday
5:00 a.m. — Couch-to-5k training
5:45 a.m. — Body Pump (weight-lifting class, 45 minutes)
8:30 a.m. — Body Flow (tai chi/pilates/yoga class, 55 minutes)

Wednesday
9:30 a.m. — Body Flow (55 minutes)

Thursday
5:00 a.m. — Couch-to-5k training
5:45 a.m. — Body Pump
9:30 a.m. — Yoga (55 minutes)

Friday
5:00 a.m. — Crunches, stretching, warm-up walk
5:45 a.m. — Cycle class
9:30 a.m. — Pilates (55 minutes)

Saturday
8:45 a.m. — Couch-to-5k training
9:30 a.m. — Body Flow

And at the end of Week 1? …

I feel good. And tired. Good and tired.

This is a more strenuous schedule than I’d been accustomed to, but not by so much that I hesitated to try it. And these classes have always been a little hard for me; I can keep up but usually at a slower or less strenuous pace than many of the folks alongside me. (If there was a time that I felt self-conscious about such things, it’s behind me.) By Friday, I’d worn myself out pretty well, especially my lower body, and it showed by the end of the week.

I was only about seven minutes into my Friday cycle class when I realized I was going to have to pull back. My muscles were tired, sure, but I was also feeling nauseated. (Anyone else experience that? I consistently feel sick to my stomach when I do shoulder presses, and have since I was in college; this was a similar feeling. I have no idea what it is but I write it off as one of life’s quirks.)

I was close to leaving cycle class altogether, but my pride got in the way. Instead I kept my seat in the saddle and peddled for the next 40 minutes as vigorously as I felt I could. By the end of class I felt alright, but glad that I’d taken the cue. I also chose not to attend the pilates class that day

Come this morning, though, I was ready for my run and Body Flow (where again I pulled back just a bit from my normal participation — that class will kick your ass on a good day).

I’m looking forward to my rest day tomorrow. I’m also looking forward to next week’s routine, and the week after, and so on. I’ve never stuck with a solid workout schedule long enough to notice the improvements in my strength and endurance.

The next few months have the potential to be full of proud moments.

Miss Dawg says “HEY!!!”

Miss Dawgface was hanging out just waiting waiting waiting to be in the photos, too.

And then there’s this …

I’m not ashamed. Really.

Day 3 of 101: Beginner sewist

First, welcome to my little sewing space. Take a look around?

My first pincushion! Care of friend and sewist, Melizza.

Melizza gave me one of her adorable handmade pincushions (in vintage teacups!) for my birthday. She chose just the right colors for me.

My sewing space as it appeared the first day I set it up.

A shot from above, complete with dog helper. Seriously, when this dog isn’t sleeping the day away upstairs, she’s hanging close-by. I kind of love it. (That business card? For a seamster shopkeeper in Greensboro who’ll teach me all I need to know about sewing!)

Tools!

I use the cutting board and iron to press fabrics as I sew. The measuring tape is my stop-gap until I can find the metal ruler I know I have stashed somewhere in the apartment. The notebook: I plan to keep notes on each project I attempt; little learnin’ book. And finally, pins! I got the cheapest ones. I stood in front of the wall of options at JoAnn, staring at silk pins, glass-head pins, quilting pins, straight pins, curved pins … not to mention to the colors! These were the simplest ones I could find, until I know exactly why I’d want the glass-head pins, long pins, short pins …

My sewing machine, dressmaker's sheers, first fabrics!

The machine (a beauty!) was a gift from my parents. Did you know my dad’s mom made her living as a seamstress? That crosses my mind sometimes. The shears are a gift from a Durango-family friend (thank you, Mary! As soon as I get to know this machine, you can expect a gift of thanks). And the fabrics came at the end of an hourlong perusal with only a little hand-wringing.

And now to the sewing

I’ve been reading and watching how-to videos about sewing for more than a month. I built a little library of basic information in my brains, but there’s nothing that replaces actually running fabric under the presser foot.

My idea? Gather basic ideas from trusty blogs for how to construct a simple tote. And construct a simple tote.

This is a mini tote. I wanted to practice my basic skills before I dedicated a lot of fabric to the project.

I used this video, How to Make a Tote Bag, as my guide for my first attempt. Cute video, cute bag. And I think the only problem was that I don’t have enough basic knowledge to use it as my tutor. Evidence:

Oops. I did that.

This was before I realized that I could sew super close to the edge, and that I should double back on my final stitches to reinforce the seam. Consequence: it unraveled and looked sloppy.

Hmm, does that look right?

This is what I think the video tote bag probably looks like on the inside. Or maybe I should have done some extra sewing to “pin” the seam flaps down? In any case, I knew I ultimately wanted a lined tote bag anyway, so I went on the hunt again.

And I found this photo tutorial, Sewing 101 on Craft Snob.

Onto another mini version of the tote:

It looks so cute!

So, this version requires the sewist to kind of cuff the bag around the base of the machine to apply one of the final seams. This little guy was just too small to do that, so I ended up using straight pins to “finish” it and see if what I had done so far worked.

It did! So it was time for a bigger version:

I love the blue liner. *Love*

It worked! I did it!

Kind of.

See that pucker at the top seam? It wasn’t on purpose; I accidentally made the outer bag bigger than the lining. And see how the corners aren’t quite square? They were supposed to be square.

Which brings us to my biggest hurdle so far: apparently I have a hard time sewing a straight line — even though the machine does most of the work! (Feed dogs. They are the best. And I like that they’re called “feed dogs.”)

So after a noble but errant tote project, I set out to YouTube to figure out what I was doing wrong. And I came to this video (Sewing machine basics: sewing in straight lines): practicing straight lines by running paper under a threadless needle! Brilliant!

My first attempt to sew straight.

My practice sheets started out a little crooked. And I realized I needed to let go of the stress, figure out what the machine was doing (it veers stitches a little to the right), and trust myself to make the (very slight) corrections to keep the line straight.

I got better.

This was a clear reminder that half of my sewing education is going to be along these lines, repeating exercises to get me ready for the real show.

Next step? Revisiting the blue-lined practice tote …

Day 2 of 101: Making almond butter

Check out my food board on Pinterest to see just some of the recipes I bookmark.

Recipe 1 of 50: Maple Cinnamon Almond Butter with Hemp, Flax and Chia Seeds (from Oh She Glows) One of my 101 Days challenges to myself is to actually try out some of the hundreds of recipes that I bookmark. To give that challenge some focus, I set my goal at 50 recipes. Here’s the first!

Next-level nut butter

(It’s impossible to call it “nut butter” without it sounding Miss-Jackson-If-You’re-Nasty, am I right?)

Patrick and I have been making our own peanut butter since we discovered it’s as simple as grinding dry roasted peanuts in the food processor until they turn butter-ish. (If you try this yourself for the first time, keep the faith: That rotating mound of semi-dry-looking peanut mash will eventually pseudo-liquify into peanut butter. But not after the peanuts and food processor duke it out in a loud, vicious battle).

As my food-blog-following has evolved, I’m increasingly drawn to recipes that maximize taste and healthfulness. So when I saw Angela of Oh She Glows concoct an almond butter that included flax seeds and the like, I didn’t waste a second bookmarking it.

Six months ago.

The two cups of almonds plus additional ingredients rendered about 1 1/2 cups of almond butter.

The recipe’s been sitting in my inspiration bin long enough. And because we’re almost out of peanut butter and have most of the ingredients handy, this was the first recipe I chose to launch my 50-recipe challenge.

And it was simple as can be.

What we didn’t have on hand (and what I couldn’t find during cursory search at a couple of grocery stores) was the hemp or chia seeds. The flax? I have it ground, not whole.

After a shoulder shrug, I tossed the ingredients together, baked as directed, and processed until I had almond butter.

Maple and flax mixed in with the almonds just before being put in the oven (30 minutes at 300 degrees, mixing halfway through).

My only oversight: I let the roasted almonds cool too long before I tossed them into the food processor, thus losing the advantage of the almond oil being hot and speeding the nut-to-butter time.

A note about that: The directions call for grinding the almonds for about ten minutes, end of story; because my almonds were too cool it took longer. To avoid my machine overheating, I stopped it at about ten minutes (and it was hot as hell, so good thing) and let it rest a bit before restarting it. I ran the processor about five more minutes, let it cool again, and then ran it one last time and added the final ingredients. Next time, I’ll just do it up right the first time, but if anyone else makes the same mistake I did …

I’ll keep a lookout for hemp and chia seeds (maybe at our Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op?), but I’m supremely happy with this first attempt.

My first almond-butter snack? I sliced up a banana, put a dollop of the butter on top and poured just a tiny bit of honey over the whole thing. It was nearly a dessert.

PS

If we're in the kitchen, we're audience to a beggin' dawg, who seems to think we'll feed her scraps (though we rarely have).

Day 1 of 101

So here’s this big idea I have: The 101 Days Project.

[A little background: I'm not currently working, and I don't expect to be for several months. When I started thinking of ways to make my time meaningful, I came to this ...]

Between today (which is the day after my thirtieth birthday, incidentally) and the last day of this year, fall one-hundred-and-one days. I plan to fill them with projects and challenges. Essentially, lots and lots of learning.

The idea feels like a living thing; it keeps growing and evolving in a way that makes it hard for me to lay down a solid framework. What I do know is that these things have been buzzing through my brain:

Almost-no-car challenge. Now that I’m headquartered at our apartment, I’m close to everything I need, and certainly within biking distance of anything important. Plus, it’s been too long since me and Stinger buddied it up. My idea is to do all our grocery shopping, general errands and get to and from the gym on foot or on bike. Unagreeable weather = car weather.

The all-scratchmade kitchen. There are so few things we still buy processed. Specifically: tortilla chips, jams and pastas. I’ve daydreamed about an all-scratchmade house since I was a kiddo.

50-recipe challenge. I bookmark and pin so many durrrrrn recipes. Do you know how many of those recipes I’ve made? Of the hundreds? I think two, maybe. So over the next hundred-and-one days I challenge myself to take 50 of those recipes and try them out in our kitchen. (As it happens, I’m working on recipe No. 1 right now …) Here’s my food board on Pinterest, from where I’ll likely draw those recipes.

The all-scratchmade bathroom & cleaning pantry. You know what most cleaning products are? Ways for cleaning companies to make more money. There are a few solid basic cleaners that all our great-grandparents used (because that’s all there was to use!). Same goes for the cleansers and moisturizers I use every day. Thing is, I don’t know very much about them. Yet.

Fit, for real. This is my No. 1 priority. I’ve created a detailed workout schedule for myself and I plan to continue using Weight Watchers. My goal isn’t so much to reach a certain weight, but to attain an as yet unknowable level of fitness. In other words, whatever my body can do, I plan to make it do. Oh, and I’m bringing back my spreadsheets.

Sewist Lindsay My parents got me a sewing machine for my thirtieth birthday! I’ve been talking and reading (and talking and reading) about sewing for at least a month now (inspired by my friend, Melizza), and I’ve finally got the means to explore it. There is so much to learn, hands-on. Like how to sew in a straight line.

Write write write. Did you know I studied creative writing in college? And that I miss the act of writing (pen or keyboard)? I want to write my ass off (and improve my writing: I get a little sentimental sometimes, and it annoys me).

Read read read. This’ll be built in to a lot of my projects, since so many of them will require me to educate myself. I’d also like to pick up a book every now and then for its own sake. On the bedside table right now: The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Finally.

Housewifey. When I was working, my job was a 45-minute commute in each direction. Patrick picked up a lot of the home duties (taking care of Miss Dawg, cooking our dinners, cleaning). I’m going to pick up all those tasks, plus step in for the whole business management side of life (the phone calls to insurance companies, following up on mail, etc.). I will even clean our bathrooms.

The view ahead

I’m full of hope for who I can be when left entirely to my own devices.

In the last days of my long commute to work I imagined my new days, in and out. I imagined them minute-by-minute. Because my expectation is to fill every moment I can with productivity and creativity. Learning. Cleaning. Making. Organizing.

In my imagination, these things aren’t easy but my motivation to do them is effortless.

In my imagination, I skip from one moment of creation to another, with a beat between to breathe and appreciate this chance I have to exhaust my internal mechanism.