Duct Tape & WD-40

Favorite Photo Friday - Luke's Football Poster

Not sure if this counts as a photo, but I am going with it. A few weeks back I went to a Scott Kelby Photoshop Seminar with my friend Anke. He showed us a poster he made for his daughter's soccer team that looked like a poster you would buy of your favorite sport's star. I was thinking how smart and creative Scott Kelby is and how lucky that little girl was to have a dad that can do that when - ding-dong - and idea comes to MY head! Why don't I make one of those for Luke on his football team? DUH?

So I made Luke pose for pictures and used my sick Photoshop skills and VIOLA! my Luke looks like the pro football player that he is going to be one day.

I'm going to have it printed and laminated to hang in his room. I'm also going to take it to games to help cheer him on. Size - 16x20

************

I've been doing some (okay, a lot of) whining here lately about how stressful and out of control my life has been lately. Yes, it is still stressful and out of control, however, I have taken back control of something. My eating (and drinking). Last Friday I saw a nutritionist to talk about food. 

Seriously, my relationship with food is so messed up that if I am not on NutriSystem or WeightWatchers or Smart for Life, I have no idea what to eat. I just lose all control and eat tons of sugar and carbs. This leaves me feeling depressed and lethargic and I, of course, gain weight.

I know that sugar increases your seretonin levels in the brain and makes you feel better for a while, but then you crash and need more. It's like a drug. So I was depressed because of my stress and I would eat chocolate and doughnuts and everything else sweet I could get my hands on and that would make me feel better for a few minutes. Then, I would crash and get depressed that I had so much stress and no energy and weight gain, so I would need my next sugar fix to feel better. It was a vicious cycle.

I already knew this, but I didn't know what to do about it. Should I eat a lot of protein and no carbs? Should I just eat fruits and vegetables? Isn't there sugar in fruit? Is that bad sugar? If I just eat fruits and vegetables where would I get my protein? Don't I need lots of protein?

So, first step: 

doctor - just to make sure there is nothing wrong with me and get a starting point ie. glucose level, cholesterol level to measure my success.

next step:

nutritionist - to learn about healthy eating.

She had me start a twelve week program that begins with a 7 day cleanse. This is to help my get rid of all that sugar and alcohol and that stuff that is in Diet Coke. I am in the middle of it right now and I have to say that I am feeling better.

My mood has improved and my energy is better. Now that may be due to the placebo effect of knowing that I am doing something good for my body, but whatever. I'll take it.

I don't think I will forever give up doughnuts and (God forbid!) chocolate. But I must learn to eat them sparingly. I don't feel good when I eat those things. I am learning to eat and make peace with food and my body.

That's why I don't call this a diet. It isn't. I haven't even touched the scale. This is a lifestyle change and it has to work. I can't continue to live the way I was living. I can't have the things I want if I stay in that pattern of self destruction.

I won't talk a whole lot about it on my blog. Who wants to read about what someone is eating unless it is at some fabulous restaurant in London? I'll just give you updates from time to time about how I am doing.

Thanks for you support, Internet. I don't know what I would do without you.

Favorite Photo Friday - It Is Okay

I'm heading to John's beach house on St. Teresa Beach tomorrow. I need this so badly. I have to tell you that even if John had not been able to put this "adults only" weekend together I think I would have just shown up on his doorstep. I would crawl on my hands and knees all 275 miles to get there if I had to. I would sleep on the beach.

Internet, little pieces of me are breaking off and dropping like crumbs from a cookie. I am bubble wrap and someone is popping my little pockets of air one by one. I can't even tell you why. This one is private, internet.

But when my friend John called Wednesday to finalize the details of our weekend party with 6 other fantastic people, I sobbed into the phone. And he said, "don't worry about anything, I have it all taken care of." And I said "okay."

I took this photo at St. Teresa Beach. I give copies to my friends and one day I will offer prints for sale on my one day website. I try to look at it for comfort and reassurance.

So now I am off to feed my soul some salt air and white sand and SUNSHINE (they haven't had any rain up there). I am barely going to move. Just breathe in and breathe out. Really, if it involves any thinking or effort, I'm not going to do it. That may even include eating and changing my clothes. And maybe, just maybe I'll try to talk John and Steve into singing the "Animal House" soundtrack into beer bottles for me. And maybe, I'll give the orders to fire the cannon (I'm being literal here - Steve usually brings his cannon).

The only thing I am committed to doing is bringing Emily's ashes and spreading them in the Gulf. She will join Tundra and spend eternity at her favorite place in world.

Learn Something New Everyday

Some of you may be familiar with the scrapbooker, teacher, blogger, cupcake maker, Shimelle Laine. She is known for her annual class, Journal Your Christmas. I try to do this every year and usually end up with only a few journal pages. This year she offered another class that stared on September 1st called Learn Something New Every Day. Basically, she gives you writing prompts and art journaling/scrapbooking ideas every day in September. The idea is to learn something new about yourself everyday and document it.

Now I haven't been bitching much about it here, but if you follow my tweets, you know that I am completely overwhelmed in my life right now. I certainly don't need to take on another project. The reason I decided to do this, however, is because Shimelle gives us participants digital templates for everything. All I have to do is plug in my information and photos. Quick and easy and I get to do something creative. Plus I am not pressuring myself to do it everyday. Some days I learn the same lesson over and over again!

So, I give you my first entry for September 1, 2009. Most of the elements on the page are created by Shimelle. I did, however, create the background paper (although it is almost an exact copy of Shimelle's page) and the date label tape at the bottom.

Yesterday, I had to literally be four places at once. Somehow, I worked it out so that Karen took care of one thing, Gary took care of another and I took care of two things at once. What were they? Well, I had open house at the little boys school last night. I was supposed to speak to the assembled parents, so I needed to look presentable. As I drove Cole to all of his therapy appointments, I had my hair in knotted in little buns all over my head to make my hair curl without frizzing in the rain.

I was barely late picking up Cole from school, so I had to get out of my car and walk through campus to aftercare looking like this. Children laughed when I walked into the room. Then I took him to PT, then a quick trip to a furniture store and another evening activity without taking my hair down. Oh I forgot we went through the McDonalds drive through and got gas and a snack at 7-11, too.

I put my make-up on in the Publix parking lot 15 minutes before open house began.

September 1, 2009 - Mission Accomplished!

1. picked up Cole from his school

2. had Luke and Jack picked up from their school (Karen)

3. got gas and a snack

4. Cole to PT

5. homework done for Luke and Jack (Karen)

6. peanut butter sandwich for Luke before football practice (Karen)

7. get Luke in pads and take him to football practice (Karen)

8. check out Labor Day sale at Robb and Stucky

9. McDonalds drive through for Cole's dinner

10. take Cole to activity in Winter Park

11. put on make-up

12. go to open house, make speech about joining Parent Club

13. Cole picked up from Winter Park (Karen)

14. text Gary reminding him to pick up Luke and get fast food for Luke, Jack and himself.

15. meet with Luke's third grade teacher and hand out invites to my birthday party

16. skip out last part of open house and head home in the rain

17. get home and find out that Gary did not read my reminder text. He remembered Luke all by himself. He didn't know to bring home food.

18. make Cole and Jack take showers (Luke already showered) while Gary goes back out for dinner

19. make myself Lean Cuisine (BTW Lean Cuisine not helping blooming weight problem)

20. eat quick dinner with the family.

21. put boys in bed

22. read e-mail that has been neglected all day

23. help Gary make template for lettering on new Outsource trucks.

24. pay 3 big bills online.

25. GO TO BED

A Vacation Video

A long time ago, people would go on vacation and take their film camera along. When they returned home they would have the film developed as slides. Then they would load the slides into the round tray of a projector and set up the screen. Finally they would invite all of their friends and neighbors over to their house to watch the slideshow. Anyone remember that?

Well, this is what we do in 2009. We shoot pictures with a digital camera, then choose our favorite photos right then and there. Then we upload them into iMovie and put them together with some music and titles. Finally, we upload them to YouTube for the whole world to see.

There are some pluses and minuses to this new way. 

Minus = no free snack and drinks. 

Plus = you don't have to sit through someone's boring vacation photos if you don't want to. 

Minus = no fellowship with friends and neighbors.

Plus = you can watch it in your underwear.

So now I present to you the Hudson family vacation 2009. It takes 5 minutes and 30 seconds of your life that you can never get back. You decide if it is worth it. And feel free to pick your nose while you are watching.

Definitely NOT on Vacation Anymore

Been wading through over 500 photos of Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. It is taking forever because I keep getting distracted by them! My first goal is to pick a bunch of family/scenery shots that tell the story of our vacation. I want to put them together in a YouTube video like I did for our Stone Mountain trip last October. Then I want to group and process some "professional" shots because I keep running across some awesome pics in there. Definitely some work that can be sold and entered into competitions. Finally, I want to print some photos for framing and a special scrapbook I am making.

I am looking at a lot of Lightroom work!

I have also decided to join an online quilt along and make a new quilt. Right now, that is really all I want to work on. I love the monotony sewing long, straight lines. I find it calming. Here is a peek at the fabric I am using and my progress so far.

It is all from Heather Bailey's Pop Garden Line. I am in love with the colors. They just say "summer" to me.

This is what I am doing writing now. See the long straight lines?  Soon I will be cutting the pieces in to squares and sewing them together in - you guessed it - long straight lines.

Speaking of quilts, I never posted of photo of the 5th grade quilt that I sewed.

Each student painted a square that represented something that they do at their school. I didn't design it. The only thing I did was sew it together. And I'm not being modest when I say I didn't do a very good job of it. The binding part was hard and looks like a 5th graders did it.

Finally, the end of our vacation means this

The beginning of my running program. I've put on a few pounds during all of my recent traveling. Also, I just need to get into better shape. And I know that (even though I don't like it) there is really nothing better than running to keep the weight off and get in great shape.

In that spirit I have given us a family goal. I have registered all 5 of us for the Gasparilla 5k in Tampa next February. That's right. We are ALL going to do it. We have 8 months to prepare. Anybody up for a family vs family challenge???

And yes, I am still playing tennis. I joined a C+ team. Yikes, that is a couple of levels higher than what I was playing before. Going to be playing LOTS of tennis this summer to prepare. Don't want to let my new teammates down.

Christmas Goodness in Full Swing

Hello bloggity readers on the world wide web. It would be redundant to say that I have been busy. But it is the Christmas season and I know that, just like me, you are all overwhelmed and crazy. But I have the seasonal cure. DRINK ADULT EGG NOG. Seriously, only once a year do you have such an excuse to indulge in high fat, sugar, cholesterol and alcohol. Imbibe internet! And that's all I will say about that.

This year, many people are getting handmade gifts from me.  I'm not blaming the economy and trying to be frugal.  I am just trying to simplify. There are people on my list that really don't NEED or WANT FOR anything. What do you get these people? More stuff? Just for the sake of giving a gift? So for these people, I have decided to give something of and from me.

I hope they like it, because I guarantee that I spent a lot of time on it and I wouldn't have bothered if they were not VERY special to me. So, unless I found the "perfect" gift for you, I am making the perfect gift.

I can't wait to post some pics, but some will have to wait until AFTER Christmas.  Here, however, is one thing.  I made this blanket for a teacher/friend who is expecting her third girl any day.  Once again I thought, "This girl has two kids worth of baby stuff and is getting more daily. I don't want to give her more STUFF. I want to give her something special."

I call it "Reinventing the Wheel."

Sorry for the stinky photos.

Why such a name for a pink baby blanket? Because I couldn't find a pattern, so I just made it up. I don't mean that in an "I'm so creative I can design my own patterns" way. I mean I didn't know what I was doing and it took forever.

I based it on a blanket that I saw on another website, but there were no directions. The whole time that I was cutting fabric the wrong size and trimming things that weren't straight and tearing out uneven seems, I was thinking that somewhere there were directions for what I was doing. Someone had tried this and failed and worked on it until it was perfect, then sold that knowledge in the form of a pattern. I am figuring out what someone has already thought out!

It ended up looking like I made it in my 7th grade home ec class.  But, if I had wanted to give her a perfect blanket, I would have bought one.

**************************************

This is one of the reasons I am so glad that school is finally out for Christmas break. These are all of the teacher and staff gifts that I took to school with me on Friday. Actually, this story deserves it own post, so I will hold off for now. Let's just leave it at I had a hard time delivering them all because I was one of the mothers in charge of the second grade Christmas party.  Thanks to Blair, Jackie and Tiffany who let me be somewhat of a slacker.

**********************************************

Finally, the most important part of this post. Don't let anyone ever say that reading blogs is a waste of time because this time you will learn something worth $5.00.

Costco has the big mega bottles of Grey Goose Vodka on sale for $5 off through Christmas Eve. They also have Bailey's for $3.00 off. Stock up people because this is a good deal. It doesn't go bad, so buy as many as you can afford. I could only afford 2 so it will only last me through next week.

Randomness and Christmas

Oh internet, I feel like I am so behind. I have so many things that I wanted to create for Christmas and it is all just getting away from me. Why didn't I start sooner???

In the Salyer tradition of procrastinating, here is a new blog post and some randomness to start your day.

Yay! Lookie at the new blog Christmas header. It is only four days late. Psst... here is a hint of things to come. I took the header design from my 2008 Christmas card design. So, if you think I don't have your snail mail address, e-mail it to me so I can send you one of these magnificent things.

Our little 5 year old neighbor, Kyla, came over last Saturday to watch a movie with us. I caught my 6 year old, Jack, makin' his moves. What a playa' in his Sponge Bob jammies.

Next, I totally made this myself! It is a 60x72 rag quilt made out of Christmas flannel. Seriously, I know!

I bought that fancy sewing machine and, darnit, I am going to sew with it. It was really super easy. It just took a lot of time. I'm so proud of myself for finishing it. I want to carry it around everywhere I go and show it to strangers.

Finally, my December Daily album that I spent all day doing on Saturday.  That's right. Christmas shopping done? No. Christmas cards done? No. Outsource Christmas Party Album done? No. Chunky, creative, arty, messy album full of pages for my December Daily photos done? Totally done!

You may remember last year I did a daily photo album during the month of December like Ali Edwards (see side bar - that is the 2007 album). The year before I did Journal Your Christmas with Shimelle Laine, but I didn't quite get finished with that one.  This year I decided to do a combination of both - photos, journaling, whatever I feel like.

Here is the front cover.

The cover is actually clear acrylic. The dark brown background is some paper I used so that you could see the clear parts of the album. I'll post more photos when I get more pages done. I mean, the pages are done, but I haven't added the photos or journaling yet.

Alright that is it for now. Time to watch Grey's Anatomy. Here is being behind at Christmas and doing everything but what you are supposed to be doing and DRINKING LOTS OF EGG NOG!

A Turkey Blessing Book Tutorial For You

I don't think I have ever had an original thought in my head. This little project is no exception. I saw it on Martha Stewart's Thanksgiving Special and modified it a bit to fit my needs.

I thought I would pretend like I am some sort of crafting celebrity and give you all a tutorial

We spend every Thanksgiving with Gary's family in St. Petersburg, Florida. And every year I annoy everybody by taking their picture and insisting they write down what they are thankful for (they continue to amaze me that it is so hard for them to come up with things they are thankful for, but that is between them and their psychiatrists). Afterward I make some kind of mini album.

This year I'll be doing it again. New for this year: we will all have our own turkey blessing books that will also serve as place cards.  Like this:

Super easy. After Thanksgiving, when these little turkeys are overflowing with gratitude, I will add photos from the day to their front and backs.  Then I will hang them all from a large loose leaf ring (inserted through the eyelet that serves as their eye - kind of morbid, yes?).  2008 Thanksgiving mini album - done!

First of all, go here and download Martha's free turkey silhouette. Now if you have a Xyron Wishblade or other type of personal cutting machine, this next part is SO much easier. If not, get those hands ready, you're going to be cutting a lot of turkeys.

Trace and cut two turkeys on brown cardstock and three turkeys on regular white printer paper. The brown cardstock turkeys are the front and back covers. The white turkeys are the pages.

Next, cut the legs off of the white turkeys. I know it sounds cruel, but you can do it. You birthed babies! You are the strongest of the strong.

I did it and actually found it kind of fun.

Next, apply glue stick to all of the edges and the middle of one side of a white turkey.  Align a white turkey with a brown cardstock turkey and stick them together.  Use a brayer or the back of a spoon to smooth the paper. Now, do the same thing to another white turkey and the other brown cardstock turkey.

Be careful here! Make sure you have the glue stick on the right side of the turkeys or you'll be getting those scissors out and cutting another one.  You know you don't want that to happen.  By now, you are so sick of cutting turkeys you don't remember why you started this project in the first place. Or maybe that was just me.

Now, take your third white turkey and apply glue stick to its head, neck and chest. Stop your glue stick at about where the legs started.

Align and stick the half glued turkey to one of the brown and white glued together turkeys (white sides together). Smooth it with a brayer or spoon. Now apply glue stick to the head, neck and chest (like you did before) to the other side of the half glued turkey. Attach the other brown and white glued together turkey. Now you have a little turkey book.  

Here is another view to show you what I mean.

Fold the little turkey feet up at the ankles at the same place on each side. This lets them stand on their own. Fold each feather side back to the glue line. This helps the turkey balance.

Use a gel or paint pen to put a name on one side of the turkey.  Insert an eyelet for the eye.

Make one for each person at your Thanksgiving feast and it can serve as their place card, too. Make sure to put a pen beside each one.

Pester every guest until they have written in their Turkey Blessing Book.

Take their picture while they complain. Use heavy handed guilt inducing tactics like pointing out how long it took you to cut each and every one of those turkeys. Or "kids are starving in Africa and even in our great United States of America and you can't even think of ten things you are grateful for." Try this one too, "We are teaching our children to be thankful for the small things and you are setting a very bad example."  Can you tell I have had some practice with this?

Have too much time on your hands? Here are some extra ideas.

1. Have kids decorate their turkeys with beads, feathers, paint, glitter, gravy, whatever.

2. Before gluing turkeys together, stitch around the brown cardstock turkeys with embroidery floss.

3. Add more pages to your books by cutting more white turkeys and gluing them in like you did the half glued turkey page.

4. Think of something even better and post it in my comments section.

I hope you all have a blessed, safe and warm Thanksgiving.