What's Up Wednesday

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I'm in such a great mood today!  It's only 9:30am and I already have my to-do list half done, wooo, go me!  I hope you're having as good a day as I am. 

So yesterday I promised to talk about what's been going on with me since I went on my break a few weeks ago.  The simple answer?  Lots!  Lots of really good things thankfully. 

First, if you're living in the northeastern of the USA like I am, you know how crazy the weather has been.  We had an amazing warm spell in February where it was in the 50s or 60s for weeks, whereas it's usually in the 20s or 30s.  That totally confused my poor snowdrops.

They came out and started to bloom.  And THEN we got literally a foot of very wet, very heavy, very compact snow dumped on us.  I thought these poor guys wouldn't make it.  That snow FINALLY melted in the end of March, and believe it or not, the snowdrops are just fine.  However, it's been so cold since then!  In the 20s and 30s.  This is what it looked like on Monday!

There's still a little snow left on the ground today, but thank goodness it's going to start warming up today.  It's going to be 45 today, then in the 60s tomorrow, and then nearly 70 on Friday!  Awesome!  I'm so looking forward to it.  So are my spring bulbs!  They've literally been up for almost two months and haven't had a chance to bloom.  I can't wait to see how pretty they are this year :) 

I've also been pretty crafty lately.  I made a decision early this year to stop buying more fabric and try to use up what I already have.  It's a very practical resolution because I'm literally out of space to put new fabric.  This is it.  I HAVE to use it.

This is most of my fabric:

Those are my fat quarters...

That's my filing cabinet where I hang my yardage...

And there's two more filing boxes full of hanging yardage!  And these pictures don't even include my steamer trunk full of batting or my huge plastic tote full of backing fabric, not to mention the wooden chest full of clothing fabric!  Oh my...

Thankfully, I have lots of ideas of things I want to make.  I even got a couple of projects done while I was gone, too!  I made some pillows for our couch that match the quilt that I leave on the back of it.

They go nicely with the country colors I have going on in my front room.  I really like them!  As a bonus, I stuffed them with shredded foam I had left over from another project.  I hate it when pillows filled with fiber filling get all smooshed and there's nothing you can do to fluff them back up.  The cool thing about shredded foam is that you can always refluff them.  It's very practical! 

I also made a wall hanging to put in my hubby's bedroom (yep, we sleep in separate rooms -- essentially our house is really old and it's too small to take a large bed up the stairs, let alone find a place for it in the bedrooms).  It was fun to make.  It was actually the first time I tried freezer paper piecing, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I'll be sure to take another picture once it's hung up in his room.

As for plastic canvas, if you read yesterday's post, I'm sure you'll remember seeing my progress on my latest pattern.

My Aerogarden is doing surprisingly well.  Usually after about two months, I get kind of tired of taking care of it and generally dump it before it's done.  I've really stuck with it this year though!  It's given me so much lettuce, it's probably paid for itself.  The little display says it's been running for109 days!  That's nearly four months!

I'm guessing the reason I've been taking care of it and kept it going for so long is because, yes, I've been on a diet since the end of February.  This is kind of a sensitive subject for me.  I've been on diets before... ok, not very many diets, bet some.  I'm 33 and I can count on one hand the number of serious diets I've done in my life.  I'm really good at dieting, too.  Every time I diet, I lose about 30 pounds.  However, as I'm sure you can guess, I'm really good at putting the weight back on. 

I decided to make a serious change this time though.  I'm trying to teach myself that I have to be careful for my whole life, clearly, if I want the weight to stay off.  But I want to be honest here too.  I'm less concerned about the weight than I am with how I feel.  I was so severely depressed this winter that I literally thought it was too difficult to continue living (I wasn't suicidal, I just thought it would be so much easier to be dead.  Trust me, there's a difference).  I knew I needed to change my diet, because experience has proved to me that your eating habits affect so much of your life. 

I went back onto my low carb paleo diet, and within two weeks, my mood has improved by so much!  I have so much energy, and my mood is so great!  I'm almost a totally new person.  I have lost about 10 pounds since the end of February, which is'n much but I'm ok with that.  I have 40 pounds to go to be where I want to be, and my goal is to be there by Christmas of this year, but I know I can get there before then.  This diet is so easy to follow because I'm never hungry, and after a few weeks, the cravings for junk food pretty much go away.  I'm exercising every day in ways that I love (walking, biking, and hopefully soon I can do gardening).  And generally, I'm just feeling awesome.  I have been on this diet before, but I frequently forget how great I feel when I'm sticking with it.  Some food-centered holiday comes up and there I go, right back to the junk food.  Well not this year!

I even managed to stick to my guns on Easter, which I'm sure you all know is chocolate fest.  I made some low carb foods to take to my mom's house so I could eat dinner with everyone else, and passed up on all the carby foods at the table.  Then when hubby's mom gave us a huge container full of chocolate, I had a small indulgence and then gave the rest to my nephews.  I can do this.

I'm probably going to report my diet progress on this blog too, just to keep myself accountable.  I'll try not to go into a lot of detail because this isn't a diet blog (I have one of those that I don't use anymore), but I'd like to at least say, hey, I did good today! 

Well, I guess that's all for today.  I still have a fairly long to-do list today and I'd like to get it all done early today so I have time for a long leisurely walk in the sunshine!  Have a great week, everyone!