Or I Could Just Buy Bigger Pants

To follow up my lovefest of a post last week, I'm going to complain a little.  Because I've decided that it's my blog and I can whine if I want to!  So there. 

So I woke up this morning intending to wear my khaki cords to work, since they're comfy and it's cold outside*.  When I put them on, I discovered I don't need a belt to keep them up.  At first I was happy, because I hate wearing belts, then I realized what this actually meant.  That I'm gaining weight again.  Not cool.  The weight gain wouldn't bother me if it didn't mean that my pants don't fit me and that I look pregnant in most of my shirts.  It's just not worth looking pregnant when you NEVER HAVE BEEN.

What this means is that I need to exercise, and probably eat better, or at least less.  Which is what this blog started out to be last year; motivation to get in shape and maybe lose a pound or 10.  Therein lies the problem, I don't like to work out.  It is just too much work.  And I'm lazy.  But I like to eat stuff with lots of sugar and grease. Oh! And carbs.  Wonderful, delicious carbs.  Hmm, remind me why I need to work out again?

I do know that if I start working out, I'll feel better and have more energy.  Plus that 5K isn't going to run itself!

*cold being colder than yesterday-it's in the 50's whereas yesterday was in the 60's

Linky Love Fest

Since I am tired and a little cranky today, I thought I should list some of the things that I love right now.  Maybe it will put me in a better mindset for the day.  So here goes!

• The Pioneer Woman-I've been reading her Black Heels to Tractor Wheels love story, and have been sucked into her website.  She's got great (if not necessarily healthy!) recipes and fantastic pictures and contests.  Good stuff, it cheers me up.
• Caffeine-I think that pretty much says it all!  We have a coffee shop here in the building and I try to limit myself to "Fancy Coffee Friday" and bring my coffee the rest of the week, but today, I needed a mocha, and treated myself to a $3.59 iced peppermint mocha.  It was totally worth it.  Plus I packed my lunch today, so I don't feel as bad!
• Liberty of London for Target-I love the patterns so much!  And the prices aren't bad either.  This weekend I bought this cute new bag for $16.99!  I desperately needed a new bag and this one is the perfect size, has a couple pocket inside and has the fun pink lining, making it great for spring. Oh, and apparently Purl Soho has Tana Lawn Liberty of London fabric to buy online!  How did I not know this!?
• My husband-I probably should have put him first, oops.  He's been wonderful lately, despite some family issues going on and being extremely busy workwise.  I'll even forgive him for crabbing at me this morning to get out of bed, this time.
• Twitter-I think I've developed an unhealthy obsession with Twitter lately.  I've even (mostly) forsaken Facebook for it.
• My Striped Noro scarf-I just love the color changes.  Even though it's getting warm out and I won't need a scarf for several months, it's still a fun, easy knit.  And I don't hate the 1x1 ribbing like I thought I would!
• Morel mushrooms-mmmm, come on rain, I need some more!  We found 4 good sized ones this weekend and I fried them up and ate them like potato chips.  I even shared a couple bites with the husband.  But only a couple. 

Well, what do you know?  I do feel better!  Have a great day!

Stop Procrastinating!

First off, update on my 30 (ok, 15) before 30 list:
1. Get my Mandarin fish tattoo-looking for an artist that does great color work, I need to start asking around for referrals
2. Sew myself a wearable skirt-have the fabric, have the book, just need to get sewing!
3. Sell at least 1 of my photographs-still working on how to go about doing that.  I just sent some pictures to Cord Camera to be printed.  Once I get them framed, I'll go to the little gift shop in town to see if she would sell them on consignment.  Or submit them to stock photo sites.  Still need more research on it.
4. Paint again (canvas, not walls)-again, have the materials, just need to do it!
5. Embroider a pillowcase-need a pillowcase to embroider!
6. Preserve vegetables that I’ve grown in my garden-only have a few things planted, it's still just too cold here in Ohio, this will be later this summer.
7. Go to a stitch and bitch or knitting group-haven't even looked, I know there are some here in Columbus, just need to go.
8. Volunteer-I need to call my connection for the Columbus Zoo and SECORE.
9. Run a 5K-yeah, I'm just lazy, need to start running, but I don't wanna!
10. Read at least 5 books on my bookshelves (preferably that I haven’t read before)-well, I'm still trying to get through 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on my Kindle, but it's SLOOOOW going!
11. Invest some money for retirement (auto 401K with work does not count)-opened a Traditional IRA account.  Need to move money into it and change my investments on my rollover IRA so I can actually make more than $7 a year!  Yes, that's all I made last year on about $1500.  Depressing.
12. Yarn Diet-Knit down my stash-doing really well with this one!  I haven't bought any yarn and have been knitting on my Spring is Here socks with yarn I got for my birthday.  I also have plans to make some washcloths with all the cotton I have stashed.
13. Bake and frost a layer cake from scratch-nothing, but I've been doing more baking lately...
14. Sell or give away 50 things that I currently own-went through closets yesterday and have 34 items that I am donating!  This total may actually increase! (of course, I don't want to jinx myself!)
15. Paint the hutch in the dining room-have kinda, sorta started to go through and purge the hutch, instead of having a junk drawer, we have a junk hutch.  So, it needs to be cleaned out.

Well, doesn't look so great, but hey, I still have 5 months to go, I just need to hold myself accountable, hopefully this blog will help!  I'm just a terrible procrastinator, I sometimes need a kick in the behind!

Speaking of procrastinating... what's for dinner?!

White Star Quarry, Last Year

So, we didn't get to go diving this weekend.  And I didn't get to play with my new toy.  The reason we didn't go is because Jeff threw his back out and didn't think carrying around 130 lbs of double tanks on his back and having to bend and twist to get his dry suit on would be a good idea.  I agreed!  I don't think I've mentioned Jeff's back issues. He's had 7 procedures on his back, including 2 major, multi-hour surgeries.  He had 3 disks removed and his bottom 3 vertebrae are fused to his pelvis.  The fusion was done when he was 17 years old.  He is now 31 and (knock on wood!) has yet to have any more major issues with his back.  Of course, the back issues were caused by degenerative disk disease, so, the chances of future problems are pretty high.  But, we'll take the good fortune that he's had so far!  The occasional pulled muscles are par for the course, and preferable to anything worse!  The fact that he's able to do the work that he does (he has his own custom tile installation business), and have an extremely active lifestyle, is pretty impressive.

But I promised some pics of the block house and crusher pit at White Star Quarry, so here are a couple from late last year with my SeaLife camera.

I still love that camera, but I couldn't pass up the deal on the Ikelite housing!  Anyone want to buy a used SeaLife DC800 with a strobe?  I'm selling it for $550.  
Anyway, the above pictures were taken above and inside the crusher pit.  The top of the pit is at about 45 feet and the bottom hits about 75 feet.  The fun part is going up through the tunnel!  Now, you have to have your Advanced Open Water certification and get permission from the quarry in order to go through.  It is an overhead environment and you need the appropriate training and equipment.  It's a little weird the first time, but after that, it's pretty cool.  It's about 40 or so feet long, with a height of about 4 feet by probably 6-8 feet wide.  Big enough to drive a small car through, and if the visibility is good, you can see the light at the end as it slants back up to the block house.  So it's not too scary, but again, I emphasize that it's not for everyone, experience in an overhead environment and the necessary equipment is extremely important.

Hopefully, next weekend Jeff's back will be up for diving and I'll have some new pictures with the new camera housing!

Some Diving Content for the Blog

Our good friend Rich at White Star Quarry was interviewed by ScubaObsessed.com. Catch the podcast here:

Episode 14 – Interview with Rich Synowiec of White Star Quarry & Jim’s Florida Dives

Along those same lines, we're actually headed there tomorrow. I'm so excited to dive, I've been wanting to go for a couple of weeks, but we've just been too busy! I'm also really excited to try my new photography toy. I can't believe I didn't post about it here. When we went to ScubaFest a couple of weekends ago, David Haas, a photographer that we met at ice diving last year had an underwater housing for our Canon Rebel XT DSLR for sale. At half price. After waffling for a couple of hours, I decided to buy it. So now I am the proud owner of an Ikelite underwater housing for our "good" camera! I'm a little nervous that I don't know what I'm doing enough to get any decent shots, but I guess that's why you keep practicing! Hopefully I'll get at least one postable picture! Wish me luck! (Oh yeah, I probably need luck to stay warm tomorrow too, the water temp is only about 45 degrees!)

I Should...

• Go run
• Be cooking dinner
• Look at pictures, edit
• Take pictures
• Work on the other computer and try to get it virus free and working correctly
• Vacuum
• Change laundry
• Blog - wait, I'm doing that one!  except, not anything worthwhile, just dropping in to make sure you know I'm still alive
• Put together a database and get Jeff's financial work stuff together
• Probably lots of other things that I can't think of right now

What I feel like doing:

• sleeping
• napping
• resting
• did I mention sleeping? yep, that's covered

Blah.  But here's a pic of Murphy the monkey:

She's so happy and energetic.  I want to be like her when I grow up...

Doing, Knitting, Sewing, Winning

Well, I'm still working on my 30 Before 30 List.  I'm going to add it as a page in the sidebar by my bucket list (there on the left) when I get it done.  But here's what I have so far:

1. Get my Mandarin fish tattoo
2. Sew myself a wearable skirt
3. Sell at least 1 of my photographs
4. Paint again (canvas, not walls)
5. Embroider a pillowcase
6. Preserve vegetables that I’ve grown in my garden
7. Go to a stitch and bitch or knitting group
8. Volunteer
9. Run a 5K
10. Read at least 5 books on my bookshelves (preferably that I haven’t read before)
11. Invest some money for retirement (auto 401K with work does not count)
12. Yarn Diet-Knit down my stash
13. Bake and frost a layer cake from scratch
14. Sell or give away 50 things that I currently own
15. Paint the hutch in the dining room

So, I'm halfway there!  Any suggestions?  Unfortunately, they can't be travel related, cause I only have 6 months, and we're planning a trip abroad for my birthday, so we won't have the time or money to go anywhere before then!

I also owe the blog my pics and process for that bag I made for my friend Dani's birthday so, here goes:

I used the one hour bag tutorial from RicRac as a jump off point.
I only changed a couple of things.  I didn't use anything for a closure, because I didn't have any snaps or ribbon.  I also sewed the strap on when I sewed the lining and the outer bag fabric together.  And that's it!  It took me longer than an hour, probably closer to 3, but, I'm still slow at cutting and sewing, and I'm really happy with how it turned out!  And so was Dani!  And that's all that matters.

I cast on a new sock project the other night.  Per my list above, I am on a yarn diet!  I need to knit down my stash, and I have accumulated a TON of sock yarn and cotton yarn for washcloths.  So, for the next six months, I need to concentrate on getting that knitted up.  Then, for my birthday, I can buy myself some Malabrigo!  Have I mentioned lately how much I love Malabrigo?  Cause I do, a lot!  Come to think about it, that's what I bought myself for my birthday last year! Oh well, it's totally worth it!

Oh yeah, I won a free yard of fabric from Sew Mama Sew's Free Fabric Friday!  I'm so excited!  I never win anything!  I've got to hurry up and pick something out, but it's so hard, there are so many cute fabrics on the site!

30 Before 30?

So, today, March 24th is the 6 month mark before I turn 30 in September.  After reading this post on the Sew Liberated blog, I've been thinking about a 30 Things to Do Before I Turn 30 list.  However, I'm not sure I can come up with 30 things that are doable in the next 6 months!  I have a Bucket List of things to do before I die, (just popped it up there at the top of the page-and here), but things to get done in the next 6 months is definitely harder.  Hmmm, gonna have to think about that a little more.

Happy Spring!

First day of Spring and it was a beautiful day! 

Unfortunately Jeff and I didn't spend much of it outside.  Jeff has been sick with a cold for over a week, and I think I'm fighting it, cause all I want to do is sleep lately.  Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty good at sleeping, but I've definitely been way more tired than usual.  Despite his illness, and my desire to stay in bed all day, we went up to ScubaFest here in Columbus today and now I can't wait to get the dive season started!  Whitestar Quarry opens in less than 2 weeks, less than a month for Portage Quarry, Gilboa may already be open (can't really tell from the website), and of course Circleville Twin Quarries is always open (well, no staff, but you can get in to dive)!

Scubafest is always fun, we got to see some friends we haven't seen in a while and made some new connections.  I want to volunteer for MAST the Maritime Archaeological Survey Team to survey archaeological sites and wrecks in the Great Lakes.  Somehow, even after diving in Ohio for the last 3 years, we've never dove in the Great Lakes!  I figure this will give Jeff and I a great opportunity to do it.  I also would like to look at volunteer opportunities with SECORE.  They work with the Columbus Zoo and other public aquariums throughout the world to promote coral reef conservation and reproduction.  I've been wanting to get involved with some reef conservation efforts, so I'm excited to learn some more about this organization.

Well, off to bed, one more weekend day left, better enjoy it!

New Toy

Since we've been back from Indonesia, I've had a renewed interest in photography.  I learned a lot on our trip and have really been taking a lot of pictures recently.  We have a Canon Digital Rebel XT, that we've had for the last several years, but I'm finally starting to learn how to use it, more than just in automatic mode.  Jeff got me a telephoto lens 70-200 mm for Christmas in 2008, which I use quite a bit, but lately, as I see some of the beautiful pictures on some blogs, and read more about the lenses they use, I decided on a new toy, a 50mm F1.8 canon lens.  So I've been playing with it lately, and I still don't quite have it figured out, but, I'm getting there, hopefully I'll have better project pictures.

The above pics were taken with the telephoto, of the barn at my grandma's house.  The last big snowstorm we got in February was just too much for the roof and it collapse.  These were taken a few weeks ago.  When I went out today, it has been torn down the rest of the way and the clean up has begun.  It looks so different out there, a whole building is gone.  It's a little sad, I remember playing in that barn when I was little, and there were always barn cats, up to about 30 at one time!  And our horse, Blue, was there for a while too.  I know my grandma was a little sad, change can be hard, but it will look so much better out there when it is all cleaned up.

These up-close pics are taken with my new toy, I love the short depth of field.  It's exactly the effect that I wanted.  So, I'm excited to learn me about it!

And these animal pictures are just for fun!  The cats are my grandma's kitties, the tabby is  Belle and the tortie is Missy.  Belle was all mellow and high on catnip at the moment!  And I really like this shot of Murphy for some reason!