Veggie Burgers
27 Jan 2012 2 Comments
in health, weight loss Tags: boca burger, grillers prime, morningstar farms, veggie burger, veggie burger recipe
I’m trying to eat healthier, and one of my new favorites is veggie burgers. So quick and easy… just pop it in the microwave for a couple minutes while I get the bun ready. Bun, burger, condiments and all = around 300 calories, and 15 grams of protein. Nice and filling. And delicious!
The only thing I don’t like is the price. These two brands, Morningstar Farms and Boca, are my favorites, but their burgers run about $1.00 apiece. That’s kinda pricey and so I’m looking to start experimenting with some recipes.
I’d looked on my favorite cookbook site, allrecipes.com. But I didn’t find anything that was really jumping out at me, though there were a few that piqued my interest. I found quite a few on about.com though with promising results… or at least promising titles, like “Carnivore Approved Mushroom Burgers.”
If you’d like to try veggie burgers but are afraid you’ll think they aren’t tasty, then I’d recommend the Morningstar Farms Grillers Prime. You truly will not taste the difference between hamburger and veggie burger with this one. Veggie burgers are becoming more popular in the mainstream as people look to curb their red meat intake, and as veggie burger flavor has vastly improved. Both the Morningstar Farms and Boca products can be found in your grocer’s freezer case (I’ve seen them at Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Schnuck’s).
I think out of the burger recipes I’ve looked at, I’m going to give this one a try: Mushroom Veggie Burger.
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Update on the Mushroom Veggie Burger recipe:
I have one thing to say about this recipe: THESE BURGERS ROCK!!
Crispy on the outside, moist and meaty on the inside. Taste great with ketchup and mustard on a sandwich thin.
Now as for the recipe, I made a few tweaks:
– I wanted my burgers to be uniform, like the patty shapes that Boca makes. I’ve got this burger shaper thingy and I used 1/3 cup of mixture per patty.
– In order for the consistency of the patty shape, I needed to run my larger ingredients individually through my food processor, including the oats. This resulted in a finer “grain” to the mixture.
– I added a tsp of Vital Wheat Gluten to the mix to increase elasticity, based on comments I’d read from people on another recipe.
– I drained the moisture from the mushroom/onion mixture after I sauteed it to keep the burgers from falling apart.
–The store I went to had Portobello and Shitake mushrooms but not Crimini. So I substituted regular white mushrooms. I’d like to try it with the Crimini though.
–I read that you could add worchestershire sauce and smoke flavoring to veggie burger recipes. I didn’t have any but added some steak seasoning. Not a noticeable flavor that I could tell but didn’t hurt any.
– It said to fry the burgers in olive oil but I thought I’d try baking them instead. It was late, I was tired, and just wanted to be done, you know? I sprayed the cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray and baked 10 minutes each side at 350 degrees. The burgers flipped over just great! Baking, broiling, or frying, I think any of the methods would work. Using a Foreman grill would work good, too. If I was to use an outdoor grill though, I think I’d bake them a bit first and then put them on the grill.
Speaking of freezing, I’m sure these would work just like the Boca burgers as far as freezing and microwaving them for quick meals. I’m so glad I gave this recipe a try.
It Takes A Village, Part 1
08 Nov 2011 6 Comments
in craft projects, Family, Interests, Kids Tags: building a landscape, christmas village, holiday projects, plaster of paris
Over the last ten years or so, I’ve been collecting ceramic Christmas Village pieces from a variety of dollar stores. A few dollars here, a few dollars there… and now I’ve got nearly a dozen buildings, people, trees, etc.
When you go into the front door of our house, you’re met by a set of stairs and a shelf. That shelf is where we put the Christmas Village last year, thanks to Margo’s suggestion. I really liked having the village there, it was great. But I wanted to improve it… and remembered a story Allen had told me of his childhood, how he had built a landscape for his Matchbox electric race car set. I wondered if we could do something similar for the Christmas Village.
Not only did he say it was possible, but we had a unique opportunity yesterday. Allen was off work and so was Margo. We decided on the spur of the moment to just go for it, so off to the home improvement store we went!
We decided to take advantage of the 20-foot ceiling in our entry way, and build the landscape into a mountain, cutting the wood and screwing it together into a base with three tiers.
We used chipboard for the flat surfaces and 1×2 pieces for the columns. We quickly discovered the wood screws were splitting the 1×2′s, so we had to pre-drill holes in them before screwing them in place.
The whole thing will stand about 3 feet tall, and 3 feet long. It will probably weigh 50 pounds when we get done. I got a steal on rail road track – 25 cents per package – so we’re adding a train and tunnels.
Once the tiers were in place, we checked the placement of the village pieces. We put everything on it, including the people and dogs and fire hydrants. If you’re interested in a village, you can buy one for $36.oo from Dollar Tree.
In my case, I’ve been buying pieces from different dollar stores so I don’t have a matching set. There are some pieces I really want… the sleigh ride and the nativity. I’ll keep my eyes open for them, in coming years.
Once we had the placement of the pieces where we wanted them, it was time to start stapling on the chicken wire. Allen and Margo even made shelves with the wire, to add another half-level down at the base near the ice skating pond.
We used a staple gun and 1/2 inch staples to attach the chicken wire. We chose the square wire rather than the hexagon, because it was sturdier and we would only need one layer of wire instead of two. All of the wood, wire, screws, staple gun and staples cost us about $35.00. We used a table saw and miter saw to cut the pieces… but you could use a hand saw and still not take that much time.
After we got the chicken wire on, we put the village pieces back on and re-checked the placement. We realized we needed a few little cliffs here and there, and a half-shelf for the tree house. Our friend Becca did her Bexzilla impression. Love you, Bex!
One of the things we quickly realized is that I have a whole LOT of pieces, and getting them all to fit on the landscape is gonna be a bit of a challenge. Especially when you add in the electric lights in each of the buildings. We pre-drilled holes in the chipboard underneath each building, so that there was a place for the string of LED holiday lights that will run underneath the plaster. We hope someday to have a real working train on the track, so we left plenty of space in the back for train tunnels that would allow the train to run around and behind the mountain, coming out again on the other side.
Now comes the fun part… adding ‘flesh’ to the ‘bones’. Or more accurately, putting newspaper strips dipped in plaster all over the base and tiers. Our friend April selflessly cut paper after paper after paper. I didn’t get a good picture of her but I will next week. She cut strips of newspaper and then tablet paper, for hours! We used plaster instead of starch or paper mache, because the plaster was all I had. Come to find out it was a pretty good choice, as it dries fast!
I can’t tell you how messy this is. Allen loaned us a couple of old t-shirts of his so that we wouldn’t get plaster all over our clothes. You mix the plaster powder 2 to 1 ratio with warm water.
We quickly realized that this was gonna be a 3-person job. The plaster gives you about a 10 minute working time before the plaster in the bowl starts to set. Allen kept the bowl filled with fresh plaster so it wouldn’t dry out on us.
We started at the top and worked our way down, dipping the strips of newspaper into the wet plaster and then laying it over the chicken wire. At first, the plaster wasn’t sticking to the wire.
So we had to make the plaster a little bit thick for the initial layer on the wire. It’s going to take about 5 layers of newspaper and plaster to get it thick enough that the edges are nicely rounded.
The first layer is finally done and drying. This landscape is probably going to spend a week or two on our kitchen table as we continue adding layers, doing the stucco, and painting.
One of the reasons we decided to jump on this project and keep at it until the first plaster layer was on has to do with the timing of Allen’s Big 50th Birthday Bash on December 2nd. We wanted this family project to be the first thing people see when they walk in the door. I’m thinking of naming the village “Allentown” in his honor. We couldn’t have done this without his direction and assistance. He’s an awesome husband and father.
We nearly had a major disaster: I had thoughtlessly started rinsing plaster down the kitchen sink. Fortunately Allen caught me before too much of it went down the drain. “You can’t do that! It’ll clog up our house pipes!” Hadn’t even occurred to me. So we had to go out in the back yard – where it was raining cats and dogs – to rinse ourselves and our equipment off.
I was sooooo ready to be done. We’d been working on this for 6 hours! I had plaster up to my elbows. I would have had it in my hair, too, had we been outside where I could have safely started a plaster fight with Margo. I mean, c’mon… you gotta throw this stuff. It’s just too much fun. But since we were in the kitchen, I restrained myself. I’ll be back with an update on the village when we finish getting all the layers of plaster on.
Grocery Shopping Motherlode
05 Nov 2011 2 Comments
in Family, Kids, thrifty-ness Tags: aldi, freezer inventory list, grocery shopping list, pantry inventory sheet, save money without clipping coupons
Go straight to the list, skip the chat: Grocery Shopping Motherlode
There were times in our family’s life when we couldn’t afford to buy our six kids a lollipop at a softball game. Literally every dollar I spent was compared to a gallon of milk, because we went through about a gallon a day, between drinking and cooking. A typical grocery shopping trip looked like this:
The three older kids would each be pushing a grocery cart. Two younger children would be laying across the bottom racks of two carts to connect them, like a steel-basketed bullet train, and the baby was in the seat of the first basket. I would alternate between holding the list and the calculator, holding the baby, holding the coupons, and holding my breath that nothing got broken.
We shopped about once a week or every two weeks at most. Average monthly grocery bill: between $600 and $800, and this included toiletries, household goods, pet food, cleaning supplies, etc. It wasn’t unusual for our grocery receipt to be five feet long! Our older kids took perverse delight in telling the checkout clerk that we’d be back next week for the same amount of food. It usually dropped the poor clerk’s jaw, which gave the kids a good laugh.
Alright, so that being said, we’ve had to learn some tools of the trade to become a semi-pro shopping team. (See… you knew there was a reason we had all these kids!) We’ve also had to deal with a couple of food allergies (me to dairy, and Margo to soy). We’ve read books on coupon clipping, conparison shopped everything from big box stores to bread thrift stores, and scoured second hand stores and libraries for resources to help stretch every single dollar.
Today on Facebook I was invited to join a coupon club. And while I’m no longer shopping for 8 people on a weekly basis, I’d offered to share some of the kitchen helper files I’d created in order to manage the kitchen chaos. You’ll find here some downloadable forms that I’m glad to share with you. They are in Microsoft Excel format, and you can edit them by downloading them to your computer and opening Excel. (If you don’t have Excel, would you let me know? I’d be glad to convert them to pdf for you.)
When you download the file, you’ll find four files within it. They are:
- PRICE COMPARISON – a list done about a year ago, comparing prices of items we regularly purchased, from Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, Aldi, and Schnucks.
- FREEZER INVENTORY – a list of everything we could ever want to put in our freezer.
- PANTRY INVENTORY – a list of everything we could ever want to put in our refrigerator and pantry. Both lists are organized first by category and then by alphabet.
- ALDI PRICE LIST- if you’re lucky enough to have an Aldi store near you, then you really can save a lot of money on your groceries. Even though most of our kids no longer live at home, we still shop Aldi every week, and our grocery budget for 4 adults is $150 a week, and still includes pet food, cleaning supplies, toiletries and the like. This list was originally compiled by a discussion group, and I edited it for my own tastes. But my prices are about a year old. So I checked and there’s a gal who is keeping a current price comparison on her blog!
HOW TO USE THE LISTS:
1. Edit the lists to add the food items you usually buy, and delete the ones you don’t.
2. Print your lists.
3. Clip the lists to a clipboard, or put them into a binder with sheet protectors.
4. Go through your freezer, refrigerator, and pantry. Mark an X for each item you have in the list. For example: if you have five 6-oz cans of tomato sauce, then mark 5 X’s next to the tomato sauce in your list. As you use the cans, put a line through an X each time you use one.
Bonus points: Print out a pantry list and put it on a clip board. Tie some yarn around a sharpened pencil and hang the pencil from the clip board. Hang a hook in your pantry or dry goods/canned food cupboard. Put the clip board on the hook. Repeat on the front of your refrigerator and freezer with those appropriate lists. Every time you use something up from the list, mark it off. Now take your lists and go shopping. You are a semi-pro shopper, because you’ll never have to return to the grocery store for something you forgot to put on your list, and you saved money and time, too!
If you’ve read this far and haven’t downloaded the list yet, here’s the list link again (so you don’t have to scroll up): Grocery Shopping Motherlode
A final note about coupons: they can be a great help to you, if what you usually buy is an item that you have a coupon for, AND if the item is on sale. But in reality, coupons present a lot of temptation to buy things that might not be in your budget. So keep your head about you when it comes to clipping those coupons, because you could actually be spending more money than you would save.
If you need help with knowing what’s on sale at your local grocery stores, try this wonderful resource: mygrocerydeals.com
And if you need some help with your finances in general – you know, things are a mess, and you just don’t know where to start – then I can’t recommend Ellie Kay enough. She’ll get you back on track and get your finances under control. Go check out her website, at EllieKay.com.
Peg’s Dress – Alternative Sewing Finale
05 Nov 2011 4 Comments
in fashion, Interests, needlework / sewing Tags: sewing adaptive patterns, sewing for
If you’ve been following my blog for long, you’ll remember that I’ve been working on a dress for a friend who is wheelchair bound with MS. Her name is Peg, and she just celebrated 40 years being married to her best friend, Joe. She’d wanted something really special to wear to her anniversary party, and so hired me to make her an outfit. I’d talked about the beginning of the process in the post, “Sewing Adaptive Patterns.” An adaptive pattern is one that is altered so that a person with limited mobility can have clothes that are easy to put on, and yet attractive.
I’d made a necktie for Joe, and it wasn’t easy to sell him on a flowered pattern! Peggy can be a stinker, and up to the day before the party, she was telling Joe that I’d sewn a bow tie for him. I think he tried to hide his disappointment at that news, so he was a little surprised when I delivered a standard tie. He looked really good in black pants, a black button-down oxford shirt, and his flowered tie. Of course the tie didn’t last long, and we didn’t get a picture of him wearing it. But here it is, draped over Peg’s dress.
So the dress: I loved how it looked on her once we got it all tailored. But let me say that the dress that we finished with looks only vaguely like the flannel mock-up I made. So from the starting point, I had altered a Chinese-style shirt pattern, so that the hem was long enough and wide enough to turn it into a dress. Then I made the mock-up, which we further altered to add in princess seams and a back zipper. From there we cut the actual dress cloth, which was further altered to lower the collar, narrow the cuffs, add mock sleeve buttons, etc.
What this means is that I can’t go back to my flannel mock-up to create another dress for her. Too much altering has happened to it. On the other hand, this was a great learning experience that stretched both of us! We had to get out of our comfort zones and we didn’t know what would be the result when we were done.
We were both pleasantly surprised with how well the dress came out. She looked beautiful in it (but then, I think she’s beautiful anyway). We had a wonderful time at their anniversary party. Joe was so funny as he gave a monologue roast of some of his family and friends. It was neat that he introduced us to the people who have shaped his and Peggy’s lives. It helps newer friends like us to get a taste of the breadth and scope of who they are.
In other news…
I’m nearly done with taking the Acai Berry… the bottle is almost empty. I’ve updated my “Acai Berry Craze” post to add in my latest findings with this experiment.
Growing Old Gracefully
30 Sep 2011 9 Comments
Two bloggers recently talked about being in middle age and the fear of growing old. 49 And Counting talked about having chest wrinkles. Don’t laugh, younger women! You too will someday face this neckline bane. And Witty Biz Gal talked about older women seeking younger men in the cougar trend.
Our fear of “looking old” is exploited by the beauty and garment industries. As they see Baby Boomers face middle age, they gleefully rub their hands together in anticipation of the profits. Manufacturers put anti-aging formulations in everything from our hair shampoo to our foot scrubs. Fashion designers look backward to the fashions of our younger years, suggesting we should still wear mini skirts and platform shoes like we did 30 years ago.
Whatever happened to growing old gracefully?
We could fight our age tooth and nail, like the provocatively cougarescent Demi Moore. Or like Elizabeth Taylor. Demi should take notice: in her latter years, Liz looked anything but graceful. Slathering on more makeup and wearing plunging necklines didn’t make her look younger, or even attractive. It made her look like she was in denial. It was rather sad, actually.
But then there is prolific actress Angela Lansbury. Aside from the fact that I absolutely love Murder She Wrote, it being my favorite tv show of all time - it was also one of the longest-running tv shows of all time, continuing uninterrupted an amazing 12 years. Lansbury was 60 years old when the show began, and it became a family business as her husband, brother, and two sons became involved in the production.
The makeup and wardrobe chosen for her role in it were not only attractive, but age-appropriate. She wore beautiful suits, silk scarves, and a set of gold trademark earrings that can be seen in many episodes. There was a sense of presence with her in that role, and clearly showed she was comfortable with who she was. There was a gracefulness to her that will always mark my memory.
Lansbury is 85 years old, and still working. Her most recent movie role was in the 2011 Mr. Popper’s Pengiuns, playing opposite Jim Carrey. Even if she does sport chest wrinkles, (leathery tan or otherwise), she’s still careful to dress in clothes that are elegantly unpretentious and that flatter her form. She has presence about her that lights up her face when she smiles, in spite of the creases.
She has an ageless attitude of enthusiasm for life, which gives grace to the aging form her spirit lives in.
And that’s what I want to be when I grow up.
Heather’s Light Box
29 Sep 2011 2 Comments
in Family, Fimo, memorials, needlework / sewing, fashion, weight loss, exercise, health, thrifty-ness, clothes recycling Tags: acai berry, adaptive sewing, light box, memorial candles
My oldest daughter-in-law is a genius.
She’d heard that I’d attempted to make a poor man’s light box, using items I had on hand, with very little in the way of success. Last week she asked me if she could see what I did have, and maybe help me to fix it. I gathered an assortment of items:
- clamp-on gooseneck lamps
- clamp-on spot light
- an old pressed-board end table with screw-in legs
- leftover white muslin fabric from sewing Allen’s renfair shirt
- a clear plastic box
- scotch tape
- scissors
- an extension cord
- white poster board
With these items, she guided me in setting up the light box correctly. Now I already owned all the items to create the light box, but if I had to purchase them it still would have cost me less than $50. I did purchase two new gooseneck lamps so that the light box had it’s own dedicated ones, rather than me stealing one from Mark’s desk and the other from my sewing area.
The main thing I had been doing wrong before was to put the fabric on the outside of the box. The purpose of the white fabric is to diffuse the light so that harsh shadows soften and shine spots disappear or are greatly reduced. But by putting the fabric on the outside of the box, the plastic was still picking up and reflecting too much direct light.
She helped me to cut and tape pieces of the white fabric to the inside of the box, thus creating a correct diffuser for the lamps, and it works like a charm. It’s so great for photographing white-on-white, like these candle holders I just finished for a Memorial Beads customer.
We put the light box in the closet with the fuse box, so that the ambient light would be greatly reduced and allow for dark photography, like showing the candle holder with a lit tea light inside. Keeping the light box in the closet also allows me to use it at a moment’s notice; and yet it’s portable enough that I could disassemble everything in less than 5 minutes and put it into a rolling case.
Heather had created a new Memorial Beads design – the Leigh Bracelet – filled with memorial heart charms and crystal cubes. She’d spent a little time with the new light box and her camera, taking some shots of her bracelet for our catalog. It’s so nice now having a dedicated and ready place for us to take photos. Thank you, Heather, for bugging me about this. 
In other news…
I’ve finished my first week taking the Acai Berry capsules. If you’re curious about how I’m feeling about it, take a look at my post “The Acai Berry Craze” and scroll down to see the update.
I’m almost finished with my friend Peggy’s anniversary dress. She’s the one who’s wheelchair-bound and wanted something really special to wear to her 40th wedding anniversary party. I’ll have pics of both the finished outfit, the shawl, and her husband’s tie next week. It’s an adventure in adaptive sewing for the disabled, where we took a shirt pattern and turned it into a fitted dress with mock princess seams. If you’d like to see a sneak peek at the dress in progress, head on over to my post on “Sewing Adaptive Patterns“.
The Acai Berry Craze
19 Sep 2011 9 Comments
in Family, health, weight loss Tags: acai berry, dietary supplements
Have you seen this article? Someone sent me the link via Twitter this week, and I went to read the article. There’s also this video in the sidebar:
Okay, let’s get real, now. Didn’t the news article look more like an advertisement than a real person testimonial? I’m doubting the news anchor’s claims, for a couple of reasons: first, health experts have long claimed that losing more than a few pounds per week isn’t very healthy for you. It can be done, but at what cost? Secondly, there’s this article from a trusted source, webmd.com.
What do YOU think? Have you tried any of the Acai Berry products? Juices, supplements, etc? Have they worked for you? Met any of your expectations? Or have they just been a big waste of money?
Alright. In the interest of scientific experimentation, I’m gonna follow a similar plan as the one the news anchor did. I’m gonna get an Acai Berry supplement and add it to my daily vitamin intake (regular all-purpose vitamin, extra vitamin C for my immune system, and extra D3 for my joints). Adding an Acai Berry supplement to that, I’ll try it for 30 days to see what happens. Of course I’ll be posting my results here on my blog. But to be honest, I’m skeptical, especially after reading that WebMD article. I’m thinking it isn’t gonna be making *that much* of a difference in my weight loss plan. On the other hand, it is a good-for-you supplement, and it can’t hurt to increase my antioxidant intake.
I did run across some helpful advice in what to look for when buying an Acai Berry product. Granted, this lady is selling her own stuff. But she does make some decent points about what to look for, and what to avoid, when getting Acai Berry products.
This search of Wal-Mart.com showed me a wide variety of Acai Berry products. 14 items came up. So I limited my results to those with 4-5 star rating by consumers. That left me with 5 products. Since the Helpful Advice Lady recommended 1,000 mg of Acai a day, these supplements sounded like the best way to get it. I also was very intrigued by reading the comments in the nutrition information section.
Alright! So off to Wal-Mart I go. (Well, actually it will be in a few hours, as I have work to finish first.) I’ll start my Acai scientific (lol) trials tomorrow.
Update, first week taking Acai Berry
I’m feeling great. Like, Tony The Tiger grrrrreat! The thing is… I don’t know how much of that which can be attributed directly to the Acai Berry capsules I’m taking. Because a number of things started about the same time: going back to Curves and working out 5 days a week, taking my vitamins regularly instead of hit and miss, and taking Acai Berry. I don’t know that I’ve shed any pounds, but I know that some fat has moved around, because a jersey knit skirt I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing in public now fits pretty darn good. So something is happening.
Update, subsequent weeks taking Acai Berry
It’s November 5, and I’ve been taking the Acai Berry for a little over a month. The good changes from last month are still here, although I haven’t had any more dramatic changes to my weight or measurements. In fact, in the few weeks since my last weigh and measure session, I had lost a cumulative 1 inch, and half a pound. So things are actually moving a bit slower. But that’s often the case with weight loss – some people have a dramatic loss at first, and then it tapers off or even plateaus for a bit, then the loss becomes slow but steady.
I still wonder whether any of this can be attributed to taking the Acai, so when the bottle is empty, I’ll stop taking it for a while and see if I notice any changes. Of course I’ll update here and let you know how things go, sans Acai.
Curves In The Road
19 Sep 2011 3 Comments
in exercise, Family, health, weight loss Tags: Curves Smart, Curves workout
I’ve gone back to Curves.
It was a little bit of a tough decision, because I wasn’t sure my right foot could handle it. Yes, my chiropractor has been adjusting it, and my plantar fasciitis has been soooooo much better. But I still had reservations about whether all that progress would be for naught when I went back to the workout. On the other hand… I’ve been stuck at my weight of 183 for a couple of months. Dropping my caloric intake wasn’t enough. I needed to go back to getting regular exercise.
If you’ve never heard of Curves, here’s an informational video, before I go on.
So why Curves, instead of another type of gym or swimming or the treadmill?
Okay, there’s a dynamic involved here. First, Curves is exclusively for women; there’s no testosterone in the room, and it just seems to create an atmosphere that is more companionable. Sorry guys – we love you dearly, but you are a distraction in the gym. It’s hard for us to feel comfortable in working out when you are around.
Second, the Curves workout is something that can be done by all women of any size, any age, and any state of muscle tone. At my club, we have an average age of 50. There are a few younger women in their 20′s, and a few grandmas in their 80′s. It’s a low-impact workout if you need it to be, so even if you’re 86, you CAN do it. Curves Smart customizes the workout to where you are at. Everyone does the same exercises – it’s just the intensity that changes.
Third, there’s an intentional social atmosphere to Curves. The workout machines are stationed in a loop, and you work your way twice around the loop in a 30 minute period. If you’re going to Curves fairly frequently, you’re gonna get introduced to the same people. You’re gonna develop relationships. People are gonna ask you about your life and share about theirs in return. And yet you’re all doing this around a circuit of resistance training machines.
I find this the most fascinating part about Curves.
Yes, you could bring in your Ipod and just tune everyone out, if you aren’t socially inclined. People will quickly get the message and not bother you. But otherwise, you’ll get to know the women you work out with and you will encourage one another. You’ll get to talking and that 30 minutes will go by so fast. It almost doesn’t seem like you’re working hard.
The third thing about Curves that is different than your run-of-the-mill athletic center is the way the workout is conducted. There’s music playing – if you’re old enough, you’ll remember “Hooked On Classics” . Classical music was re-arranged and sped up to near Disco beat. It was a novelty that exposed people to the beauty that is Classical music. Curves does something similar, but they take pop songs from the music charts and increases the beat a little bit. You’ll hear rock-and-roll from the 1950′s through the 1980′s, songs that were on the top 10 in their era. Interspersed with the music is a feminine voice, that says “Change station now” about every 30 seconds. At first, that might be a little disconcerting, especially when you’re not used to it. But at the same time, it makes the workout go really fast, because you aren’t worried about how long to work a machine, or how many repetitions… you just listen to the music and it guides you along.
(Unless you’re having such a good time and you get to talking and don’t hear the woman on the music tell you to change station and there are people behind you on the circuit wanting to move to the next machine but you are still on it. Um. Yess, well that never happened to me, of course. But I thought I’d mention it anyway.)
So personal testimonial here: I’m wearing a size 16 in clothes. My optimal size is a size 12. I’m 5’8″ and have fairly big bones. I haven’t worked out since I quit going to Curves, and that was three years ago. I was using my treadmill, but not very much – it makes me slightly dizzy, and my podiatrist said it wasn’t a really good option for my foot. So that meant I was doing some stretching but aside from that, no exercise at all.
When I went back to Curves, I was concerned that I’d be a little overwhelmed (and a little sore, muscle-wise). But you know what? I was able to jump right back into it, no problems with my foot whatsoever, and I’m absolutely loving it. No muscle soreness, either. What I have noticed, though, is my energy level and my alertness mid-afternoon. Even after only one week, I’m finding a definite change for the better in both those areas.
Ladies, if you’re wanting to know about the cost: My Curves location is $39 a month. You can find one near you, I’m pretty sure. These are franchises, so your local cost may vary. They’re generally open 6 days a week and you can work out as many times as you want. I’m going daily right now, to see if I can handle that, though it may change to 3x a week if I’m feeling like it’s too much. So far, it isn’t.
When you sign up, you get not only weighed but also measured: bust, upper arm, waist, thigh. Why? Because the changes will most often be seen in your muscles before they are seen on the scale. And really, when you think about it – isn’t that the better way to go? What your muscles say is way more important than what any old scale says. So once a month you get re-measured. I guarantee that if you’re eating healthy and go consistently 3x a week, you will see a difference in your measurements even in the first month.
I am proof of that. It took me 9 months, but between Weight Watchers and Curves, I had gone from a size 20 to a size 12. (That was back in 2004-2005) I’d slowly put that weight back on over the last 6 years because I’d stopped my WW and Curves routine. But I know it works, so I have absolute confidence that I’m going to have success this time around, too.
If you wanna talk about it, please do leave a comment! I love comments and I’ll always reply. If you’re curious to learn more about the Curves workout, go to the Curves website. Check it out. If you want more personal input, I’ll be glad to answer questions if I can. (I’m knowledgeable enough about it, with the exception of Zumba. That was new to me. But the Curves Smart program, I’m familiar with.) And if you’re already a Curves member, gimme a hollar! I’d love to have your encouragement here, for other women to read. We all need that, and personal testimony is the best way to do it.
Clothes to Dye For
13 Sep 2011 5 Comments
in clothes recycling, fashion, needlework / sewing, thrifty-ness Tags: dyeing fabric, how to dye clothes in your washer, recycling clothing, rit dye
By now you probably know I’m an unrepentant clothesaholic and fabric hoarder. I cannot pass by a garage sale without stopping to see if there’s something that will fit me. Thrift stores have this magnetic pull. I have to fight my car’s steering wheel or it will take me into the parking lot. Right. You know the drill.
Before I went on my mission to discover my own personal style, I bought clothes without a clear sense of purpose. My closet is an overstuffed riot of colors, with no sense of connectivity. I don’t have a foundation of simple basics. Much of it doesn’t fit my lifestyle as a home-based business owner. Or if it fits, it’s the wrong color and doesn’t work with my Autumn skin tones.
Ugh. It was so much easier getting dressed in the morning when I didn’t know what I was doing!
Short of tossing it all and starting over with a brand new wardrobe (I wish!) — I’m committing myself to doing some pruning, altering, and re-purposing. It’s a slow, painful process at times, because I don’t have a lot of time to work on it, plus there are pieces that I love and don’t want to give them up. I remember a cream colored Irish knit vest I bought at Goodwill – adorable on the hanger, and at the time I thought it was really cute on me. But now I realize it made me look like I’d gained 15 pounds because of the bulk of the fabric around my waist. I looked like a Lego brick with legs. It has finally, reluctantly, made it’s way back to Goodwill.
There are other things that I’ll keep because the colors and fabrics work for me but they need altering – the waist nipped in or the shoulders brought in, buttons moved, darts in the shoulders or hem, etc. Those things are in a huge pile in my sewing area.
And there are things that fit but just aren’t my colors. Rit Dye to the rescue!! Or Dylon if you can get it (try JoAnn Fabrics). It’s a better quality dye than Rit, in some cases. But I’ve used Rit many times with success. So let’s talk about that!
One of my sisters was saying that she’d wanted to try dyeing things but was too afraid to do it out of fear of ruining it. And that’s a legitimate fear! Some fabrics take dye better than others. And people worry that they will stain their washer or otherwise ruin it. If you follow the instructions on the dye bottle, you will be just fine. I’ve dyed lots of things in my washer and we’ve had it for 12 years (go Kenmore). My washer is still nice and white inside. If you’re still unsure and want some advice before diving into the dye, the Rit website has a great section on what you can dye, and how best to do it. It also has a fun blog to read. If you’re crafty, you’ll like their site.
So armed with my two bottles of dark brown Rit Dye and a container of salt, I headed to my top-loading washer. (Top loaders are better than side loaders because you need to add wet fabric to an already agitating washer. But if you have a side loader, don’t worry. There are other methods of dyeing, and they are all on the Rit website.)
I set my washer to large load, because there were a bunch of things I wanted to dye: a silk skirt, a denim wrap skirt, a pair of pants, and that length of corduroy fabric. I set the temperature to hot wash and cold rinse, delicate cycle so it wouldn’t splash but would agitate, then put it on the longest wash cycle. As water started filling the washer, I poured the dye into the hot water, being careful not to splash. After that, I measured two cups of salt (one cup per dye bottle) and poured that in, too.
While the washer was filling, I put my fabrics in the sink and got them thoroughly wet. If you put dry fabrics into a dye bath, they will dye unevenly. So making sure the fabric is thoroughly wet is important. Once that was done and the washer was full and agitating, I carefully slid the fabrics into the washer. It’s important to be nearby, because the washer will need to be reset on it’s wash cycle at least once to keep the clothes in the dye bath for a minimum of 30 minutes. I put Allen’s laptop on the kitchen table and started working on this blog post.
When the time was up, I allowed my washer to finish it’s cycle naturally. Then I left the dyed clothes in the washer and reset the wash cycle, let it fill full of water, and added clothes soap. My silk skirt is a hang-to-dry type, so I added fabric softener to the final rinse. After the washer was done, I pulled the clothes onto the edge of the washer. Look at how each different fabric took the dye differently.
After all the clothes were out of it, I reset my washer to a hot wash and large load, putting clothes soap and a cup of bleach into it. The bleach cleans my washer beautifully, removing any residue of dye that would get on other clothes. I’m confident that the washer doesn’t retain any residue from the dye, so I washed a load of white clothes right after I cleaned the washer.
Ready to see how the dye did on the clothes and fabric? I had some mixed results.
My denim wrap skirt, which used to be a traditional denim blue, has darkened a couple of shades to an indigo. I was expecting brown! But I hadn’t checked the fabric content first, just assuming that it was 100% cotton. My mistake. The skirt is actually 65% Tencel, which is considered a subcategory of rayon made from wood pulp. It has a rayon-like consistency – no wonder I liked the skirt. Rayon is my all-time favorite fabric, hands down. However, Tencel doesn’t dye easily, so my skirt is retaining most of it’s blue color. No matter; it’s a darker blue and will flatter my figure better than the lighter blue did.
The cream pants that I dyed were an unknown manmade blend – the tag had been bleached so that I didn’t know what the material actually was. So I was happy when it took the dye at all, coming out a dark tan color. Problem is, I found a stain that I didn’t know was on the pants. I could use a color remover and remove the dye, then try to remove the stain… but chances are, that won’t work. So I’ll toss the pants. I could keep it an try to make a gored skirt, but I have so much fabric and clothing already that I really don’t need it that much. Out it goes! Since the pants only cost me $4.99 at Goodwill, it’s not like I’m losing an investment piece.
The silk skirt took the dye beautifully! It’s a rich, deep chocolate brown and I absolutely love the color. Only problem is, I also found a few small stains on that skirt. In this case, however, I’m going to cut the skirt apart to remake it, into a skirt that is slightly less full but which doesn’t have the stain spots on it. Silk is expensive, and a skirt easy to make. So it’s a keeper in spite of not being able to wear it right away.
The brown corduroy is a grand success, I’m happy to say. It’s a wide-wale cord with a beautiful braided style to the wales. I’m going to be making a sporty riding jacket with it, with a suede collar and elbow patches, something like these. This will be my g0-to fall jacket when it’s done. (By the way… yes, that blue marble is my kitchen table. Ooooh that’s a subject for another post!)
Oh, and those white clothes I washed right after I cleaned the washer?… See, Ma? No dye!
Running Backwards
12 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
I want to start out by saying I hate blog posts that are full of apologies for not blogging.
So this won’t be one of those.
It’s more a progress report on things I had expected to get done… and didn’t.
Do you ever underestimate — make that unbelievably underestimate — the amount of time things take?
I have this blog post about dyeing fabric and clothing, and it’s all written (I did that part while the washing machine was working it’s magic). The photos are taken; all that’s left to be done is to edit the pics for pixel size and get them plugged into the post. Thought I’d have that done by Saturday. And here it is, Monday, and I didn’t even touch it over the weekend.
I’ve got an article for the IPCA website on getting a website made. Thought I’d have plenty of time to get that done for the newsletter and turn it in on Friday. I didn’t get it done. In fact, I didn’t even touch my computer between Friday afternoon and today!
Ditto on getting the weekend orders shipped, sewing my friend’s anniversary dress, cleaning my laundry off my bedroom floor, sweeping the library, and mowing the lawn.
And yet… I had a super busy weekend. Went out to dinner with our kids, went clothes shopping with my husband, spent time romantically with him, we got the grocery shopping done together, and he cleaned both refrigerators while I went to youth group.
It was a question of priorities. The lesson in this for me is that I must be more aware of the people in my life than I am of the work in my life. I don’t think balance is really possible. There are times when work is going to run backwards because family is more important.
Lately I had been hearing small comments from my children that I’m always working. I must listen to those things and take them seriously; they know I’m a workaholic. I get razzed about it, but there’s a kernel of sadness in those teasing comments. When family runs backward because work is more important, then I have to acknowledge that I’ve got a problem. In that moment, I realized I’d been saying “no, I can’t do ________ with you because I have to work” too many times.
- – - – - – - – - -
15 minutes later…
Wow. Timing is funny sometimes.
As I was writing the above part, I could hear Mark moving around upstairs. Like he often does, he came down to my studio to tell me about his dream from the night before. He’s done that since he was a little kid – shared his dreams with me. This one was about his family getting kidnapped and he came to the rescue, ‘Die Hard’ style. He’s got a vivid imagination and he’s a good storyteller. I love all his dreams, with the exception of the zombie ones. In that case, I will ask him to just give me the cliff notes version, because “gross” just doesn’t even come close to describe it.
Anyway.
As I sat there and laughed at the antics of his dream-self, I was reminded that he’ll be in Iraq by this time next year. And while we’ll have Skype so we can keep in touch, I doubt he’ll be calling me to tell me his dreams. Would I be willing to let work run backwards if he did that? Absolutely. Without hesitation. So why should it be any different while he’s still home with us?
It was a sobering thought.
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