What's new 2

So this post has nothing to do with creating.  You can leave now if you want.

Our family doctor started a concierge type of practice.  In addition to insurance you pay a monthly base fee, for care.  He has a limited amount of patients on this service.  You have access to his cell phone, email, and home care if needed.  He also performs a major physical, doing body photos for melanoma ( I've had melanoma removed, so I'm in it for life as far as having the twice a year skin checks) .  He checks your carotid artery with ultrasound, and has analyzed for atherosclerosis, he does major blood workup through the Berkley heart labs, he spends a great deal of time talking with you.  The time spent initially is about 3 hours.  The follow up is about 2 hours, going thru the results. For me it came down to what I already knew and have been trying to work on in that I need to lose some weight.  Less than I thought, which was helpful.  My cholesterol was much improved to past however the deep analysis they do is far past the Ldl, hdl, as they are typed, into many sub levels and how should you change these.  My ldl was 65- this is low as we know numbers, but two of the sub levels could be improved, so that's on my game plan.  He also  hooks you up with a nutritionist through the heart lab so the choices you make are better for you individually.

He offered and I took him up on it on a device by Body Media.  This little device plugs in to your computer after you wear for hopefully 23 hours a day.  It tracks your sleep, activity- both time and in mets, calculating your calories burned, you track your nutrition on the computer, it tracks how many steps you take a day. Its small about 3" square on an armband.  It even tracks how long you lay down- I read when i go to bed, and although I had slept only 5 1/2 hours it said I'd been laying down 8 something.  Now that was weird. You have to be honest with yourself when your tracking your nutrition. It will show if your on a losing weight trend or upward trend.  I'm tracking through both them and weight watchers on line. Because for so long, I've been tracking through WW I find its comforting to keep going through them.
One thing I can say about wearing the band.  Its easy to not forget when your sleeping.  Its not though entirely during the day.  In fact it keeps you reminded that your working on your weight. I'm wondering if after 30 days, it will be less re mindful, but I don't know. 
So now I'm on a journey to lose weight to improve some health aspects.  If I could discover why I'm so anemic that would be good too.  Yes we tested, and now they are on discovery tract- again.  It looks highly likely that I will be swallowing one of those little camera's that goes through your digestive system, you wear a halter that records the images as the camera passes through.  There's been a fixation that I' must be losing blood internally through this system, however, all previous test have shown negative for this.  Including and endoscopy,a colonoscopy and several samples(BTW those are the worst to collect).  After this I probably head to the hematologist if results remain inconclusive. So that is it for now.  I will in the future post on the body media device and how its going.  who knows maybe even a picture of my self will show up here and there. 
Have a healthy day.

whats new ?

Hope you had a lovely Easter Sunday.  Ours was drizzly, we had to wake up early and clean the house for a showing.  First major holiday without our daughter at home, made it rather bland.  After cleaning the house we headed to the Issaquah Cafe for brunch.  Yummy 2 egg omelet and hash browns.  One of the favorite things we get there is the Monte Cristo sandwich, a family favorite but it seemed more of an egg day.

 Oh and if you like Monte Cristo's, and usually dip it in strawberry jam- try this- dipping it in maple syrup.  We were at a breakfast cafe in Bothell a few weeks ago and they serve it with Maple syrup which seemed weird, but at the waitress said, its basically french toast.  True it is, and for a change it was nice. 

So I finished this little hat to go with the sweater I'm sending my cousin.  I have to make a little flower pin for it and it will be ready to ship. 

 These are going to make a cute set.  You can see where I changed the embroidery from the original pattern on the arm and shoulder.   The yarn is Tencel and cotton.   Total I think I used 7 skeins. 




I hope they enjoy it.

A mail box surprise

Love to open my mail and find a special yarn in there.  I ordered this on etsy, its called "vegetable garden" for colors, its fine weight yarn made from bamboo and hand dyed.  Although the photo kind of washes it out, its gorgeous yellow, orange and greens all blended together.

I promised to show a pic of the sweater I'm making for my cousins grand daughter.  so here is one.  since this, I took all the embroidery out, and have redone it- I wasn't happy with it, and you know how some things just keep bugging you until you redo it?  this was one of those pieces.  The design was from Crochet magazine,  I'm not usually a copy cat for colors, but I found this tencel yarn that seemed perfect for it, and happened to be aqua which is one of my favorite colors for clothes. 

Just another Sunday

A what a day.  First off, we had and open house and had to leave early.  Neither Hubs or I had much gumption or energy this morning.  So we debated brunch or a movie.   Movies one by default as we tried to reach a couple friends for brunch unsuccessfully so we hit the theatre. 

Arthur was the first movie showing, realize at 11:15 the theatres arent' too crowded either. The other early movie was also a comedy, the one about the knights.  So off to Arthur we went, and had our breakfast popcorn.  I heard that the reviews weren't great but it was alright.   The best line in the movie was when he was looking in the paper for jobs, and making comments about them, and stated " Can you just imagine someone doing systems integration as a hobby?"  My husband does systems integration and we cracked up.  It's not his hobby by any means but it pays the bills.  I don't really remember the first Arthur other than he drank a lot in it.  So if there are more similarities I can't help you.

We headed home, and were commenting on how cold it was.  Its usually 50-60s here in April but were still in the blasted forties.  Much too cold for spring, and it makes it hard to plant things with out worrying about them freezing over night.  Shortly after arriving a large hail storm started. 

Current crochet project is a sweater for my cousins granddaughter.  I don't know how she can be old enough to be a grandmother, as I'm not, and I'm actually three years older than her.  And though it would not be a disgrace, I'm glad at 19 my daughter is NOT having children at the moment, although in a few years I'm sure I'll be nagging at her to get married, and have some, but not too soon, I hope.
I will post some pictures tomorrow perhaps of the sweater.  Hubs is traveling this week so must provide a decent dinner before he leaves.  Fortunately I have some spareribs marinated to cook in the fridge,small artichokes to grill  and some lovely bake and serve rolls.  I do believe my favorite food is grilled artichokes in the spring.
Hope your day was pleasant  =)

Off the hook last night



another top view



brim rolled down/ side view



So I found this lovely little red peruvian cotton  and just had to do something quick with it.  I made this little red apple hat last night, complete with stem and leaf.  The brim can be rolled up to make it shorter or rolled down for extra length.  It has a nubby texure from the yarn is perfect for spring time.  Going into my etsy shop this week.







top view



I've been hooking

cloches in newborn and toddler

I've been hooking quite a few projects lately.  Of course booties top the list for my etsy shop.  But I also started the cutest little hats.  The yellow is one of my favorites, and I just had to make matching booties to go with it.






Then I worked on this little blue and white number.  It was my first time for  doing fillet crochet and its OK, probably not my favorite type of crochet. Unless I can get more comfortable doing it.

Next I tried and Italian yarn, and created a sweet baby headband.

 

Oh I wish

I'm wishing on those stars that I could move soon.  I absolutely hate having my house on the market.  And I want to move so bad, its the major component of my blood - I swear. 
I know the market is terrible, I know that there could be a better time.  But we really have to get out of here.
Renting our home is not an option- It would leave us in the hole and make it hard to sell the house as anything but a rental afterwards. 
With our daughter moving in September out of the country to finish school we don't need such a huge house.
Not sure we ever did, but it has served its purpose.
So do you have any great ideas for selling?  We have nagged at the real estate agent and I'm almost considering offering her and additional percent if she sells it one month, a half percent if it takes 2 and just her normal if it takes longer than that. It would seem like it could be helpful, ave you ever done anything like this?

Over the last week our daughter was home for spring break.  It rained every day she was home, but being a resilient young adult it didn't seem to phase her too much.  She touched base with friends, and we did a few family dinners.  Threw a dinner party at our house , and she threw a late night one of her own she called Whiskey and Pancakes.  You ask what is that?  Its whiskey drinking, and eating pancakes.  LOL.  Since the alcohol was in limited supply, it was rather self contained. But it appeared a good time was had by all.