The 4T-ish TNG Jacket... halfway there!

Yesterday was full of delicious progress.

I still need to figure out the collar, waistband, liner, and invisible zipper situations, but the skeleton is all here.

For my little captain. 

I had been stuck on the first step. 

Yeah, the FIRST step.  The front chest piece sewn to the front waist piece... in all my practicing on muslin, I could not keep the darn point from puckering.  I guess they make it the first step because it's the most important clean line... if you mess it up, you are cutting new cloth and starting over!  Finally I went on a hunt to see what other people did for cosplay purposes, and I learned about stay-stitching.  I made my seam allowance 1/2", so you sew a line above the point on the red piece just under 1/2", then cut the cloth almost all the way up to that point.  Once that corner is separated into 2 flaps, it's far easier to deal with.

Uhhh... like this:

Stay-stitching experiment.

You can see here that I accidentally put it darn close to the seam!  I did the same for the back point (on the black though, of course), and kept the stay-stitch to about 3/8" which worked just as well but gave me more of a safety zone.  I feel like I should have run into this technique at some point in my last decade of sewing halloween and ren faire costumes. 

After I figured out that step, the rest progressed pretty fast, until it was time to assemble the sleeves to the body.


There has to be a better way.

Attaching the sleeves, sleeve inserts (the black triangles), and body together is just ridiculously hard to do on the sewing machine.  I really messed up the alignment of the left sleeve inserts, but considering that I can't re-do things with this knit material (it leaves "tears" in the knit if I pick out stitches), I'm just leaving it instead of starting from scratch.  I ended up hand-sewing most of the shoulder seams on the right sleeve, and that turned out far better... but still frustratingly far from perfect.  He's only going to wear it for a year or two anyway, and there's only 6 days left until we need the costumes, so I'm trying to let go of the perfectionism.

Speaking of which, my husband could theoretically wear his uniform forever, so I need to get all my mistakes out now!  I'm desperately hoping that my husband's jacket shoulders are easier to assemble due to being much larger... and also due to not having to improvise a pattern. Wish me luck, I start on his today!

Skanty Progress

The sewing machine is hobbling along, and will work with only the regular straight stitch and a slow speed, after I ran some waxed floss through where the upper thread goes on the machine.  Looks like I need to replace the tension disc, but I can't send it in for repair before costumes are needed. 



In any case, some progress has been made!

Halfway sewn.

The skant isn't finished by any means... it still needs a zipper, sleeves, collar, hemming.  Originally I ruined the top 3 pieces due to how stretchy the black cloth is, but I re-cut them and added interfacing to the black, and they were much easier to deal with.

Since my pattern is far more simple than the men's jacket, I'm using it to do the learning of new techniques, and to make sure the sewing machine is going to be reliable now that I've found a "fix" for it.  So much of this is new to me:  sewing with stretchy knits, invisible zippers, stay-stitching, stitch-in-the-ditch, collars, trims, linings. 



It's motivating to see some real progress finally. 

Only 8 days left to finish our costumes... and those are already going to be busy days.  Wish me luck.

If I end up finishing the sewing early, I'm totally doing head-to-toe Trill spots with a brown permanent marker.  Even though I will have to explain them to the doctor the day before Halloween, bwahahaha! 

The last step before sewing: Color decisions and interfacing.

No longer so blue.

Torin has decided that he wants to be red instead of blue.  Good thing I anticipated this last-minute change, and bought a bit of extra cloth for his dad's costume.  Since the muslin practice run went so well, I cut out all the fancy cloth... there is no going back!

The Stiffening.

The red cloth is pretty thick, while the black cloth is noticeably slippery and flimsy in comparison.  After a bit of experimenting, I decided to only put interfacing on the black cloth, so that the 2 colors have a similar stiffness and feel to them.

It really did not use up much interfacing at all!

Black interfacing on black cloth.

Now that the interfacing has been ironed on... WE ARE READY TO SEW!! 


One small snag, though.

My sewing machine decided to malfunction right as I started to test out sewing with the stretchy cloth.  I spent several hours yesterday cleaning and resetting everything, researching, and coming to the conclusion that I likely need to replace the tension wheel for the top thread.  The thread keeps getting stuck at that part (even at zero tension) and skipping stitches and then breaking.

Part of my old job was to deep-clean, re-align, and repair a variety of microscopes.  It's so frustrating to not be able to do the same for just a "simple" sewing machine.

The practice run: TNG Jacket

Things are moving along!

I finally finished the pattern, cut out all the bits (besides the collar and waistband) in some really cheap muslin, and pinned them together to see how it'd work.  Seems to fit the kid perfectly!

YESSSSSSS!

This fuzzy photo shows you the main parts of the outer shell (minus one sleeve).  I think the hardest part is going to be sewing that point in the center front, it's so tricky to pin it smooth!  Of course, that is literally the first step to sew in the directions.

It's getting real now.

Wish me luck!

Almost finished with the patterns.

I really hope the next phase goes more quickly!

Between the vacation and playdates and beer-brewing and the usual life obligations, I haven't gotten very far on my Star Trek uniforms project.  Editing my pattern between 2 sizes and my husband's between 3 has taken a lot of time. 

Today I worked on creating my son's shirt uniform pattern from "scratch," and managed to get it all done besides the sleeves and collar.  I'm definitely going to do a full muslin mock-up of his to practice with, but am 90% sure I won't need to do so for the other costumes.   



Look at that cute chest piece!  

Add caption

I'm really looking forward to getting to actually cut cloth and sew!  Perhaps tomorrow...

Happy October, the best of all months!

Chomp chomp chomp...

I absolutely LOVE having a holiday wreath prepared ahead of the holiday, so that we can enjoy them for a full month.  I've only made 2... one for October/Halloween, and one for November/Thanksgiving.  Both of them are in this same style made with a wire wreath and tulle, and are pretty easy to iron for a few minutes before plopping them out on the door. 

I guess next year's goal is to make 10 more holiday-appropriate wreaths!

23 Tribbles

The kid's birthday is coming up, and he has declared that the theme should be Star Trek.

Tribbles might make a great party favor for the kids!  And so, yet another trekkie sewing project has begun.

Gutted and skinned tribbles.

Fall Colors

We went on vacation to the mountains, to see the beginning bloom of fall colors for the autumn equinox. 

On the way up, the aspens were beginning to turn yellow... on the way back, they were significantly yellow with an orange blush!  It was wonderful to literally watch the color change over 4 days.  I collected several leaves to preserve.


The glycerin method.

1 part glycerin, 2 parts water, 1 week.  It's supposed to keep most of the color, and leave the leaves supple and permanently preserved.  I'm hoping to be able to use them for fall decorations. 

Here's a photo, so I can compare colors in a week!

Aspen leaves in glycerin.

GISH part 3, Item #134, Forest Bathing

Taking "forest bathing" literally.

The last GISH item I tackled was to take a photo of "shinrin-yoku," the Japanese art of forest bathing.  It required a real tub, filled with leaves and pine needles, in a clearing in a forest.

My parents just so happened to have this fantastic claw-foot tub on their property, already in a clearing in their oak forest, and we only had to move it about 15-20 feet to get the perfect background.  They took about 60 pictures combined!

You get more points in the scavenger hunt for things that are cool, funny, weird, or aesthetically pleasing.  After much consultation with my GISH group, we decided the skull was vital, and settled on this pose: 

Forest bathing with my buddy

Just the facts.

I've been asked how much I photoshopped this:  not at all.  Editing is against the GISH rules... it wasn't needed anyhow, because my dad is an awesome photographer!

The light was eerily dim because California was on fire, and smoke was blocking the sun.  At least the smoke was very high in the air, so it wasn't affecting our lungs much at the time. 

The pine needles, pine cones, and birch/ribbon headdress came from my house, while my brother donated the found deer skull, and we all shoveled leaves onto giant beach towels to lug over to the tub.

It was a LOT of leaves, enough that I almost could not move underneath them.  It was a weighted, heated blanket that smelled of sun-baked decomposing oak and sent me into a near-meditative state.  It was so deeply relaxing that I didn't even feel awkward doing a nude photo shoot!

The pictures turned out basically exactly how I had imagined them days before the shoot.  There are so, so many outtakes... some funny, some serious.  If you want to see more, lemme know.



I think the day affected my psyche.

The experience of being weighted down under fragrant oak leaves... it made me dream of this scene every night for 6 weeks straight.  Except the deer was living and standing to the left, and in the place of the deer skull was a floating 4" ball of fire.  It becomes dusk, and the deer and I wander around the forest while I hold the ball of fire to light the way. 

Any dream interpreters out there who want to chime in with your insight? 



I should write a bunch more about forest bathing.

The super short version is that my husband recently had me listen to a podcast about forest bathing and terpenes (specifically alpha-pinene and limonene), and how Japanese hinoki cypress terpenes affect the human body, and it led me down a rabbit hole of research.

From my "tree-hugging hippie scientist" point of view, forest bathing seems like the perfect blend of magic and science!  I've ordered some of the proper terpene-rich essential oils, and will update later about my forest terpene experiments, but I'm hoping to at least partially replicate that invigorating-yet-serene sensation that lingers after camping in the woods. 



I think I'll do GISH again!

I'm so glad that I joined a GISH team this year... thanks to the leader for inviting me!  It happened on the tail end of an incredibly stressful and grief-filled month, so I didn't think I'd have the energy to participate at all, but luckily I was with a very chill group who didn't care that I only did 3 items off the scavenger hunt list.  It ended up being so refreshing to do stuff that I never would have done otherwise.

GISH part 2, Item #155: Spice Girl

The second GISH task I chose smelled pretty nice!  Uh, until I added the dill at the end. 



You could say I'm a spice lady.

One of the items for the scavenger hunt was to make a Spice Girl(s) portrait out of spices.  Herbs are kind of my thing, and I have had a slight Mountain Rose Herbs addiction in the past.  My spice cabinet is packed to the brim with quart mason jars of fragrant goodies... a kitchen witch's paradise! 

I chose Ginger Spice, particularly because I had a lot of powdered ginger for skin color and dried ginger for hair.  The most time-consuming part was just picking out the right pose and drawing it on a canvas board.

Drawing of a classic and busty Ginger Spice pose.

It took a while to get the technique down.

I tried out a few different methods, and doing a "paint by number" sort of thing with glue was the only one that really worked.  Ginger does NOT just mix with other spices easily, it clings to the paintbrush in ever-growing chunks and causes lots of problems, as I discovered on my first try without glue: 

Ginger and beet don't mix well on the page.

The solution was to make a few blends of different skin/shadow colors with ginger, cinnamon, and beet powders.  I glued all the powders in place before moving on to the chunkier spices.  The glue permanently darkened everything a bit, particularly the beet powder in the skin blends and lips... it turned out quite different than I had expected, but still close enough to work!

Spicy progress. 

This was the final shot, it looked best under the sunroom lights at night:

The finished Ginger Spice portrait.

Afterward I put about a dozen layers of spray matte mod podge on it, which worked pretty well to preserve it, though the spices blew around a bit and darkened even more.  Overall, I was pretty happy with how this turned out.  It's been years since I drew or painted anything to completion! 


Spices used:

1. Ginger powder:  skin
2. Cinnamon powder:  skin, eyebrows
3. Beet powder:  skin, lips
4. Orange peel:  hair 
5. Ginger dried chunks: hair
6. Roasted chicory root:  hair
7. Chipotle powder:  hair
8. Chili flakes:  hair
9. Poppy seeds:  eyes
10. Sesame seeds:  eyes
11. Sea salt:  reflection in eyes
12. Chia seeds:  eyelashes, eyeshadow
13. Turbinado sugar:  necklace (hard to tell in photos, but with the glue it retained a sparkly crystalline texture that does look like jewelry)
14. Smoked paprika:  dress
15. Black Hawaiian salt:  pupils, cleavage
16. Winter savory:  background
17. Dill:  background

All things must come to an end.

Today, I've weaned down to just 1oz of coffee.  That means it's my last day!

So long, friend.

Coffee in a teeny 2oz moscow mule cup.

I reduced my consumption by 2oz every 2-3 days, and didn't get any withdrawal symptoms... so much easier than cutting it in half every day.  I will miss it, but after a second bout of braces*, I am starting my year of wearing a retainer, so no coffee stains allowed.


*(The first retainer attempt gave me a gap between my front teeth that had to be corrected!  Omigods, I just want to be done having to wear braces/retainers 22 hours a day.)

GISH part 1, Item #35, Sock Octopus Hat

In August I participated in GISH!

GISH is short for Greatest International Scavenger Hunt, and it's focused on charity and "taking a break from normalcy."

Basically, they give you a list of (silly/weird/fun/helpful) tasks to complete, and you get points for each one you do.  Your team earns points together, and the winner gets a vacation trip.  The selection of introvert tasks was fairly slim compared to previous years, and I only managed to do 3 items off the huge list... but I let my perfectionism loose and spent a lot of time on each one. 



The Zone

I have had a terribly hard time getting into The Zone, that artistic mental space where time doesn't exist and inspiration and talent flow, since before my son was born.  So it's been probably 4 years!  I watch him full time, and he doesn't nap, and he breaks me out of The Zone whenever he notices that I'm about to enter it. 

The whole week was a practice of dipping in and out of The Zone nonstop, and practice to see how long Torin could tolerate not being the center of attention.  It was good for both of us, and I am finding that I now have an increased ease at entering The Zone, and am far less frustrated when I'm forced out of it by toddler distraction.  I completed more artistic things in that one GISH week than I've done in the last year! 



The first item:  Tentacly Warmth

When I saw the task that was essentially to make a sock monkey hat that was a different animal, I immediately knew that this one was for me!  I've wanted to crochet a giant octopus hat for a while, so this was the perfect opportunity. 

Sock Octopus Hat makes me long for aquatic things.

This hat cracks me up!  It was cobbled together from a few free Ravelry patterns, plus some intuitive crocheting.  It's the first time I've ever used intuition to crochet extra details.  I'm still working on writing out the pattern so that I can hopefully replicate it.

It was also insanely time-consuming to make, and left my hands aching for weeks afterward because I pushed them too hard... I've had almost a dozen requests for it, so I must disappoint everyone who wants one for this christmas.



Next year, I hope to do GISH again. 

My plan is to NOT do a crochet item, because even though it was fun to make, it took up most of my free time for the week!  I technically didn't even finish the back 2 tentacles of the hat until afterward (shhhh).  

The Skanting Nears

Fabric matching still feels so delicious.

The ponte colors match this pattern rather well too!  This pattern has a more dark blue, while the official one is more teal... this cloth color (despite the name "teal") is pretty much equally between them.

I kinda feel sorry for the guy, he has NO PIPS.

So ready!

All the cloth has been washed and dried, so I'm ready to start cutting out my skant pattern pieces.

In Sept/Oct, I always mark the calendar at the exact point when the autumn spark is suddenly in the air... but for today, the Trekkie spark is definitely in the air.  Yeah, it's gonna go on the calendar. 

Speaking of the calendar... happy belated Star Trek Day!  Sept 8, 1966 was the first time that Star Trek aired on TV.  

Skant Tracing

I'll never cut up an original pattern again.  

Since these patterns were on the pricey side, and I have fantasies about making lots of uniforms (trekkie flash mob, anyone?), I ordered some "medical pattern paper" from Amazon to trace out the patterns.  It's perfect! 

So far I have only used the tracing paper on the skant, but it kept me from destroying the original patterns in my attempt to blend between the M and XL sizes. 



It's my first time altering a pattern.

From my measurements vs the pieces, I figured out that I needed to make the M --> XL transition over about a 7-inch area right below the waist line (which is helpfully marked on the Simplicity pattern).

Papery skant.

I pinned together some of the skant pattern pieces and tried it on... and it fits perfectly!  I tried it on over my shorter dress that fits best, and it basically fits the same for both length and curve-hugging.  I was going to mock it up in muslin first, but since the fabric is pretty stretchy, I'm 90% confident that I won't need to.

Matching Fabric for Command and Science

My lesson in fabric. 

The official patterns call for wool gabardine.  There are a few problems with that... namely, I can't find it anywhere local in the right colors, and the pattern says it's dry clean only.

After some research on Star Trek cosplay, the next best option seems to be ponte.  It's thick, which is the most important part, and a bit stretchy... reminds me of the material that my grandmas would wear for pants.  The jacket/pant costumes call for fusible stabilizer on everything, so they won't be very stretchy, but the skant is required to have at least 25% stretch.

Rumor has it that polyester spandex interlock (aka double knit) or matte jersey will also work.  They are both a "step down" in quality/thickness, but I saw a really awesome gold uniform in the interlock.  I saw the same gold interlock at Joann, but it looked like it was already starting to pill up.  The skant pattern says that heavyweight lycra and lycra blends are also good options.



Color wins the day.

Really, the choice was forced on me, because ponte was the only fabric I could find at Joann with colors that matched well enough.

Red and blue were "cabernet" and "teal" in "stretch refined ponte" at 2 yards each, and very pricy.  I picked a plain ponte for black because it was less than half the cost and I needed 6 at least yards for all 3 uniforms.  This means I can wash the uniforms on "delicate" or "hand wash," and hang to dry. 

I also picked up a bunch of muslin to do a trial run for the jacket, because it is pretty complicated and needs a nicely trim fit... I don't want to ruin the expensive fabric!  I may also do a muslin trial run of the skant, because my top is size M while my hips are XL, and I've never had to blend sizes in one garment like that before.

To Boldly Go!

It's September, so it's time to get serious about sewing Halloween costumes.

I spent about 2 months asking Torin what he wanted to be for Halloween... showed him pictures of kids in costumes, gave him plenty of ideas.  We need to do something besides Jedi!  He always responded either "I want to be just Torin" or "I want to be nothing." 

That is, until one day in August, he said he wanted to be Star Trek!  We had been watching the original series, which is currently the only series I haven't seen.  Over the next few weeks he waffled between a gold uniform (Kirk) and blue (Spock) and red (Picard), and I showed him allllll the Star Trek costumes... but he finally settled on what he wanted. 


Torin's official requests were:

• Torin:  Blue (TNG style)
• Daddy:  Red (TNG style... and yes, I have heard all the redshirt jokes already)
• Mommy:  Purple (Deanna Troi's horrible bodysuit with the V-shaped belt)

I've been fantasizing about making Star Trek costumes for forever, but wanted to wait until I had finished losing weight so I wouldn't be too fat for the costumes.  But when your 3-year-old says he wants to dress up, you gotta grab the opportunity! 

My compromise (because I am NOT wearing a spandex bodysuit) was to go for the blue skant.  Troi did wear it in the first episode, and if I it's cold I can still wear black leggings underneath... technically the skant + pants combo was a maternity uniform.  I found a pattern from Simplicity.

For the men, I found two-piece TNG patterns on the official Roddenberry website.  I didn't want to do jumpsuits... Torin wouldn't have any room to grow, and it would be pretty annoying to have to fully undress to use the restroom. 


I'm going to learn a lot about sewing in the next month.

After looking at the patterns, it appears that this one is going to be the most complicated and possibly the most expensive costume piece I have ever sewn!  It is a thing of terrifying beauty... which will get worked up in muslin first so I don't ruin the fancy cloth.

I can literally feel the nerdiness in every cell.

Here's to exploration and the expansion of boundaries!

Clearing the Cobwebs

Today I spent about an hour poking around with a flashlight and a branch off the old plum tree, collecting all the tiny cobwebs in and around the house (plus 5 occupied webs, sorry daddy long legs!).  It's weird how stuff like that can go unseen for months at a time. 

Cobwebs on the tapered tip of a plum branch.

It feels like I'm starting to clear out the dusty webs of life, too.  The last several months have not been good.  A quick summary is that I was very sick for a few months, then had a series of experiences that left me with a variety of inconvenient ailments, including a lovely stress-induced ulcer and PTSD.  It isn't over, and it's impossible to talk about.  But I'm finally recovering, and EMDR therapy is awesome.  I feel like I may be a slightly different person at the end of all of this, and I can't tell if that's good or bad.

At least, I'll be a person with fewer cobwebs. 

Enticing the hummingbirds

I finally, FINALLY found a hummingbird feeder design that works for me.

It doesn't drip and leave spots all over the deck (and attract ants), even in the wind!  It is easy to clean because there are no corners deep inside a bottle.  There's even a built-in ant moat.  Rain fills the moat, but doesn't dilute the nectar.  The only thing it's missing is... a hummingbird. 

I know we're just coming out of the "atmospheric river" and all the birds have been hiding... but we're on day 4 without any visitors.  Hurry up, little birds!

February's Habits Review

My habit-tracking showed 2 different halves to the month!


The first 14 days vs the second 14 days:

• Social events:  12 vs 3
• Driving:  5.5 hours vs 40 minutes
• Days of doing at least 4 big chores:  9 vs 3
• Hikes:  3 vs 0
• Crochet days:  0 vs 11
• Reading days:  3 vs 7

It's so obvious what happened.  I socialized/traveled so much that I burned myself out and got sick (ah, the curse of an Aspie).  I hurt my SI joint hiking a third of the way into the month, and had to recover the rest of the time, and chores that involved bending were super painful, so I spent more time on the couch with an ice pack and a book or crochet hook.

The good news is that I made large strides on the hardest crochet project and committed the entire pattern to memory.  I've never seen a huge 1-pound skein deflate itself like that... so satisfying!  It didn't move from its spot on couch for a whole week.

Deflated skein.

Other wins!


These things both improved greatly and stayed consistent the whole month:

• Weightlifting
• Cardio
• Meditation

Another win is that I'm on an 12-day streak of crochet, which shows a lot of moderation on my part... I didn't let myself overdo it.



The only thing that was disappointing for the month was weight loss.  


I stuck to the deficit, only lost 3lbs, and gained up to 1.5lbs of muscle (if my scale is accurate).  First I lost 15lbs over 5 weeks, and then only 3lbs over the next 5 weeks... it's a little frustrating to see such a lack of progress.

Somewhere in there, if my calculations are correct, are about 4 pounds of water weight that are hanging on.  This tends to happen when you suddenly start exercising again (increased blood volume), and when you start weightlifting (muscle soreness = inflammation = water retained).  I should be past my 2nd milestone by now.

There has been some progress, the kind you can't really measure.  This month clothes are suddenly fitting differently (shirts drape, and I'm stepping on pants that hang lower), 4 people have noticed, and my collar bones and deltoids have popped out to say hello. 




March's Habits Plan.


I'm pretty much going to continue the same plan as February's, but attempt more moderation with socializing and shorter hikes. 

I switched out Aquariums (since I no longer need the daily algaecide, thanks Siamese Algae Eater!) for Budget, because I've taken a few months of detailed grocery data and am going to come up with a formal food budget.  My family's new probably-life-long diet is pretty protein/veggie-heavy and therefore not cheap.  There are some things that surprised me with the last 2 months' research... for example, Costco's boxed liquid egg whites are a cheaper protein source than whole eggs or protein powder, so there is no reason to skimp on the egg white omelets.  Anyway, hacking the grocery budget should be fun. 
 
As for my only "failure" for the month, I'm leaving the plan the same.  As tempting as it would be to quit the exercise just to see the number plummet, I want the muscle more.  I could cut salt, but man, garlic salt and lunch meat make food satisfying enough to stick to the plan.  And so, I just wait out the plateau from hell, trust the deficit, and hope for that glorious water-weight whoosh.  Sometime in March, I should be able to share that 2nd milestone with you!

February's Year-Long Projects Review

Here's the updated chart! 


I changed from X marks to J and F, so it's easier to distinguish which month each task was completed.

(click to see full size)

In summary, 

I finished 16 project pieces out of the 20 expected.  Since I did 5 extra in January, I'm basically perfectly on track now. 

It seems that I still want to focus on one project at a time... half a year's worth of the red project was completed.  But I did branch out with some mead-making!  I just made the whole year's worth of batches at once, and it was a HUGE event.  Speaking of which, I think I need to rack the carboys today. 

I also really need to find that crochet hook for the green project... it's to the point that I should probably just buy a new one!  Next month's goals:  branch out a bit more, and get started on that glaringly empty green project. 

Any excuse for a mead party.

In honor of Lupercalia and Valentine's Day, today marked the beginning of a new blood-red mead.  Who knows, perhaps a red mead made during the month o' love will add a little extra fertility oomph. 

Here is the hibiscus in all its glory.

Yum!

It's been over 3 years since I started a batch, so this mead is loooooong overdue.  I'll try this new hibiscus metheglin recipe, and then also a super-fast hibiscus hydromel.

January Habit Review, + February's plans

Let's see how it went.


It's not obvious from the chart, but my #1 goal this month was to complete "MFP filled, at/under TDEE" (down in the purple zone).  Not necessarily to lose weight, not to exercise... just to be honest with my diet, get in the habit of recording, and to not gain a single ounce.  Just getting myself to track calories 100% seems to be the hardest hurdle.

I succeeded with flying colors! 

(click to see full size)

As a result, I'm no longer obese!

My first big milestone, 25% of my weight to lose this round, was to get under a BMI of 30 (obese), and I definitely did that.

I am already well on my way to the next big milestone of 50%.




Habits fully assimilated!


Removed:  

• Weigh
• PM skin/vit routine
• MFP filled, at/under TDEE

I did so well on the morning weigh-ins that it's something I don't think about any more.  The habit is attached to waking up, so it takes zero effort to do or remember, and I actually like doing it now.  And the same with the PM skin/vitamin routine, it's attached to the nightly shower.  I'm removing them both from February's chart.

I also did perfectly on filling out My Fitness Pal and staying under my TDEE... and always at least 500 under.  Diet is still a huge focus, so I'm going to combine these two tasks into one.

Cooking from scratch is also something that I never really have to fight myself on... but it often takes a full hour out of the day, so I'm going to leave it on the chart for the sense of accomplishment.



The only disappointment...


... is how infrequently I took the dog for a hike!

Granted, she did go on 5-mile runs with my husband, so she isn't un-exercised... but she loves her "pack walks" with me and the kid and the stroller on a nature trail.  It is fitting then, that February's main goal is get back into a strong exercise habit.



Speaking of February...


Added:  

• Drive
• Read
• Meditate

Defined:  

• Time minimums for: hikes, cardio, crochet, driving, reading
• Hikes separated from cardio
• Reduced step goal by 500 steps, since I only made my goal once last month!  Easy goals are attainable goals. 
• Differentiated "working on blog" from "posting a blog"... because it looks like I blogged 11 times in January, but I only actually posted 6.

(click to see full size)

Now that my diet is in good form and pretty stable, my focus for this next month is to buckle down on exercise.  Having the flu for the beginning of January definitely didn't help the exercise goals, and I feel like I've only just begun to build those habits.  Back in August I pretty severely twisted my ankle, and having it braced cascaded into a whole pile of crud... I've been doing PT for months just to get back to pre-sprain pain levels (darn you, sciatic nerve)!  In any case, the sun is out again, so it's time to get my hike back on, and to strengthen up those loose joints. 

I also added driving to my list of habits to track.  I've noticed that when I have to drive more than usual, my stress levels for the day have gone way up, and it also tends to knock out my energy for chores/projects/socializing for the rest of the day (or week)... I want to see if this is true.

All right, that basically sums up all of my habit-tracking progress for January, and the plan for February!  I'm pretty happy with how the bullet journaling has gone so far.

January's Year-Long Projects Review

Woohoo, what a month!


Honestly, I'm surprised that I started on Christmas presents in January.  I FREAKING DID IT.

(Click photo to see it full size)

This chart called for 18 project pieces in January, and I hit 23... not bad!



While I accomplished a lot, I didn't do it evenly.


I may have gotten a little carried away with the orange crochet project at the top (did 2 months' worth) and the purple project on the bottom (did almost 4 months' worth), but it all works out in the end.  Now that I've actually started on my big crochet projects and committed some pattern parts to memory, those should go a bit faster.

The brewing projects did not yet begin... but the exotic ingredient only came in the mail this morning.  In retrospect it's probably not worth the wait, but waiting and saving $8 through the Amazon subscribe & save program seemed worth it at the time.

Now I just need to find an entire free weekend day to start a beer, and another to start a mead.  And, uhhhhhh... maybe another free day to clear off the clutter on the brewing table.  I am super excited to get started on the mead, because I got a big fancy bottle corker for my birthday!  It'll make the bottling process lightning-fast and easy on the hands.  And then the beer is exciting too, it's a modified Viking-style ale. 



Lessons learned?


The biggest crafting-related revelation for me from this month is that I need to make crochet more of a nightly habit.  I have a tendency to go deeply into one project and want to do it for hours at a time, and then my hands regret it and crafting is off-limits for a few days.

So next month I'd like to see more crochet days, but roughly the same pace of project completion.

And on the positive side, this is the first time that I've ever completed Christmas presents in January!  That's definitely a productivity win.

Happy Imbolc!

We made our first Brighid's cross for the holiday.  Yes, the 3-year-old picked the colors.

One of these days, I need to dig my wheat weaving supplies out of the garage and make a real one with some pretty Black Beard wheat.  But for now, pipe cleaners and ribbon will suffice.  Torin had so much fun doing the craft that he wanted to make a million of them!

It may be a week late, but the tomatoes and peppers have been planted!

I haven't labeled the trays yet, but I did take a picture for some record-keeping.

The first spring planting!

Look at those adorable little seeds...

Wee peppers.

Here's hoping everything sprouts!  Tomorrow, I plant the one-week-late collards and garlic cloves.  The cloves have already begun to sprout, so they are super ready to be in the ground. 

First milestone down: no longer obese!

I've been trying to lose my extra weight for AGES.


That extra weight was 100 pounds, peaking in 2004... and as of December, I still had 40lbs to lose. 

My TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) in December was about 1800.
The TDEE at my goal weight is 1550.

THAT IS JUST A DIFFERENCE OF FREAKING 250 CALORIES PER DAY. 

That's one extra slice of homemade pizza, or half a slice of lasagna, or 2/3rds of my favorite homemade roll.  Or not measuring dressing/toppings on a salad, or not measuring pasta.  Or absent-mindedly munching.  Or not going for a walk.  That's it!  That's enough to maintain obesity forever. 



As a result, I've changed my mindset.


I already knew this logically, and thought I had accepted it, but for some reason it never really "hit me" like it did last month.  Instead of actively trying to lose weight, I need to be able to eat, FOREVER, at my goal weight's maintenance levels.  There is never going to be such a thing as "intuitive eating" for me. 

So my goal has been just to eat and behave like I'm maintaining at a healthy weight... eventually (by July 2019, thanks losertown!) that would get me to the final goal, and I will have learned great habits along the way.  In reality, just knowing that I can hit "maintenance" calories every day has been working so well that I've been hitting my maximum safe calorie deficit.*  

There are a few tools that I'm using, which have proven motivating in measuring calories in vs calories out:

• My Fitness Pal (at sedentary)  
• Fitbit with heart rate tracking (for additional calorie burn), integrated with MFP
• Food scale (more accurate than cups or servings)
• Focus ONLY on the day's calorie goal (1550 plus exercise or reasonably less)

It's not a hassle anymore, I don't get as hungry, and I am nowhere near being in danger of burning out. 




Some motivating milestones.


These are the 5 major milestones on this last part of my journey, after having already kept the first 60 pounds off for a decade.  Hopefully I will get to share them all with you within the next year or two!

1. 10lbs:  No longer obese, so fertility/health improved  <-- Achieved!
   
2. 20lbs:  "Baby weight" is gone, felt healthier in general at this weight
3. 30lbs:  My driver's license weight is no longer a lie, felt far more energetic at this point
4. 34lbs:  My wedding weight (I starved and dehydrated temporarily for this, only maintained for 1 day, so never truly achieved it), the lowest my husband has ever seen me
5. 40lbs:  In the healthy BMI range, and 100lbs lost

* (1% is generally accepted as the max safe weight loss, for sparing muscle and your gallbladder.  For example:  1% of 150lbs = 1.5lbs lost per week = 750 daily calorie deficit)

The Year's Long-term Projects

As part of the bullet journal adventure, 


This chart allows me to see the progress of all my big and/or long-term projects for 2018 in one page. 

I did have to redact some things, otherwise certain people could guess what they might be getting as gifts!

(Click to view full-size)

I know it looks like a ton of stuff.


It's not, really!  There is an average of 4 task pieces per week.  Just pieces.  I'm averaging 6 per week so far, so it's manageable.

On the top half, the red, orange, and green boxes represent only 3 big projects broken up into something I can accomplish in a night or two.  I'm guessing that if I get in a half hour of distracted-by-TV crochet most days, I will get done with plenty of time to spare. 

The bottom half of the chart represents chunks of the bigger and more difficult projects... the ones that might require a solid half day of work (or more) in addition to a lot of preparation and decision-making.  This year I vow to get Halloween costumes finished before the first early October costume party! 

You may also notice that there are only 48 weeks this year... it gives me another 4 weeks' worth of buffer time.



But why?!


I could have just made a brief list of the major projects of the year.  But these days if it's out of sight, it's also out of mind.

The goal here is to keep myself from procrastinating everything until the last 3 months of the year.  If I can see, in general, whether I'm ahead or behind the schedule, it may be just the motivation that I need to get done early.  I was that annoying kid in grade school who filled out the entire semester's spelling book within the first week, the drive to complete all the work in front of me was huge... hopefully that will be a personality trait that will serve me well this year.

Stretching out the crochet over time will also spare my hands, and if I get done early, then perhaps crochet will have become an official habit, and I will have become more skilled and be able to add on more projects for fun. 


The last line is just for fun! 


We like to celebrate everything from Captain Picard day and national hike day to St. Patrick's day and Thanksgiving to the solstices and equinoxes.  A repeated holiday theme in my life is that I feel like it takes me a week to get into the holiday spirit, but I only remember/prep for the holiday the day before.  This way, I can see them on the horizon and get excited in advance... sometimes the best part about a holiday is the anticipation of a reason to celebrate.  Groundhog's day, I'm looking at you next!


Is anyone interested in seeing a monthly update on how the chart is getting filled out?

Free Compost Worms!

Red wigglers


I wanted to start up some indoor composting again.  Outdoor ended up not working well for me, because we don't have space for a big enough pile to create internal heat.  The Geobin pile was sloooooooooooow, and took 3 years to make about 6 cubic feet of compost.  I'm sure the fruit trees liked it, since it was positioned over their roots, but I finally decided that it wasn't worth the space, and indoor composting had definitely been producing faster than that! 

I'm revamping the diet a bit, and Torin's taken an interest in making/drinking vegetable juice, so lately we're ending up with a lot of wasted veggie bits that don't go well in a bone broth.  But... $20 for worms and shipping... yuck.




Nextdoor to the rescue!


I asked on Nextdoor if anyone had some composting red wiggler worms they'd like to share, and got 3 responses right away!  I am lucky to have such generous neighbors... one guy even offered to bring over a few buckets of them.  The first offer was from a lovely lady who lives only a few streets away... and she gave me this half gallon of concentrated wormy goodies.

99% of the worms in there are hiding from the light.

This is a HUGE and perfect amount to get me started with my indoor bin, since they eat half their weight per day.  And these wee wigglers are far larger than my composting worms ever grew, they are so healthy and happy.



I even learned something new.


I had always heard that the compost worms couldn't survive outside during winter, due to the cold, so I had always kept them inside.  Nope!  Everyone I talked to from Nextdoor kept their bins outside without any problems (aside from a fruit fly outbreak once every other summer).  They do say it slows down a tiny bit in winter, but we're in the midst of the chill right now, and these worms were crazy active in their outdoor bins.  People also just drill holes in the bins and let the extra moisture seep into the ground.  This gives me a few more worm bin construction/placement options to consider, though we will start small and in the kitchen.

We get to set up a worm bin today!  Torin is pretty excited about getting to tear up newspaper.



I do have some ulterior motives.


The turtle and dwarf gourami are going to be pretty excited too, when they learn that this will provide live treats for them long-term. 

Garden 2018's vegetable planting calendar, Zone 9b

Zone 9b is NOW.


The holidays are over, and in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 9b, that means it's time to get started!!

This week's goals are to get ready, because next week is the beginning of the Spring Planting. 


Take a look at the plan:


Here's the year's schedule, as part of my clipboard bullet journal experiment.  I divided it into weeks since all the seed directions say "plant X weeks before/after first/last frost"... and because it makes it easy to update my main weekly to-do chart.

Week	Plant Indoors	Plant Outdoors	Transplant	Other
Jan 1				Remove last dead plants Fertilize beds
2				Sanitize seedling flats Sanitize/find potting soil
3	Thyme creeping Sage Pepper Tomato Tomatillo Ground cherry Snapdragon*	Collards Garlic**		Spring planting begins! *snapdragon won’t germinate without light… leave on top of soil **Spring garlic plantings are only for garlic greens, fall plantings are for bulbs
4
Feb 1	Thyme creeping Sage Pepper Tomato Tomatillo Ground cherry Snapdragon**	Collards Garlic Miner’s lettuce Purslane Onion Spinach Arugula		**try freezing some snapdragon seeds a few days this time
2				Raised bed finished by now?
3	Sage Watercress*	Miner’s lettuce Purslane Onion Spinach Arugula Radish Turnip Kale Peas, snow		*try watercress in long planter, heavily watered.  Unknown transplant time to container pond and aquariums.
4
Mar 1	Basil	Radish Turnip Kale Peas, snow Chard Mustard Mizuna – lots this year Red malibar spinach		Summer planting begins!
2	Sunflower, very small test batch	Beet	Thyme, creeping	Begin first harvests:  onion
3	Basil Squash	Radish Chard
4		Mustard Mizuna Red malibar spinach	Thyme, creeping Sage	“Last Frost” date
Apr 1		Radish Chard Methi* Beans	Snapdragon	Begin first harvests:  arugula, spinach, peppermint *Methi:  soak overnight first
2		Calendula Cilantro Sunflower Nasturtium	Sage Basil Sunflower Squash	Begin first harvests:  mustard, mizuna, red malibar spinach
3		Cucumber Squash Beans Mizuna	Tomato Ground cherry Snapdragon	Begin first harvests:  radish, beet, chard Tomatoes, ground cherries, tomatillos transplanted after April 20th, as is tradition.
4		Radish Calendula Cilantro Pea, snow Sunflower Nasturtium Methi*	Pepper Tomato Basil Squash	Begin first harvests:  turnip
May 1		Basil Sunflower Cucumber Beans		Begin harvests:  methi (dehydrate some)
2		Radish Squash		Begin harvests:  kale, snow pea, garlic
3		Pea, snow Basil Sunflower Beans		Begin harvests:  collards, cilantro
4		Radish Methi*		Begin harvests:  miner’s lettuce, purslane, calendula, nasturtium, last fall’s garlic bulbs
Jun 1		Squash Basil Sunflower		Begin first harvests:  squash, beans
2		Radish Pea, snow		Begin harvests:  cucumber
3				Begin harvests:  basil, sunflower
4		Radish Squash Methi*
Jul 1		Pea, snow		Begin harvests:  tomato, tomatillo, ground cherry, pepper
2
3
4
Aug 1
2
3
4
Sept 1
2
3		Radish Arugula Onion Kale Collards Miner’s lettuce Purslane Methi*		Fall/Winter planting begins!
4		Mustard Mizuna – lots this year
Oct 1		Radish Arugula Onion Kale Collards Miner’s lettuce Purslane Garlic, for summer bulbs Beet Chard
2		Mustard Mizuna
3		Radish Arugula Onion Kale Collards Beet Chard
4		Mustard Mizuna
Nov 1		Radish Arugula Onion		Be ready with sheets for covering citrus trees during frost.
2		Mizuna		"First Frost” date (often does not happen until Dec/Jan though!)
3		Radish
4
Dec 1				Order next year’s seeds this month… maybe Santa sticks them in my stocking!  :)
2
3
4

What is your planting zone?