Teddy Bear

Well I have completed the hand-knitted teddy bear.  He is adorable and it turned out well.  At first, I thought my teddy would be horrible due to the fact that I never have knitted a teddy bear let alone a stuffed hand-knitted animal.  As you can see, this will not be my first knitted animal. 

In this picture, I am putting all the pieces together to be stuffed and sewned.













In this picture, my teddy is all completed.  I used buttons for his eyes and nose.  He is the softest teddy.  Just too cute!

You have to admit, he is one fine looking teddy.  The scarf was made by Lois.  This teddy will be given as a gift to a child with love.

In the shoebox my teddy goes.  Isn't he cute?  Hopefully the child that receives this shoebox will have many years of enjoyment.  The shoebox was loaded down with toys, even a knitted hat and scarf to go along with teddy's scarf.

I am walking down memory lane today.  Below is a picture of my son (18 years ago) and Marvin's daughter (16 years ago).  When I put these pictures on the table together, I was in awe of how much these two little people could go for brother and sister if you didn't know otherwise.

I had a sweet tooth, so I made this chocolate sheet cake the other night.  You can see how much the Haynes family love sweets.  Not sure if you can see the dishcloth, but I knitted this and if you look closely you might see the word HOME.  I knitted the border in seed stitch.  I love the way the seed stitch looks instead of the garter stitch.

Home dishcloth

Marvin pulled out the Christmas tree and got all the limbs all bushy to hold all the lights and ornaments.  This tree was purchased the same year my son was born.  As you can see, we are getting ready for a beautiful Christmas. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Wow, I must say it has been a while since I have blogged.  Life is good, but busy.  It seems like yesterday my son graduated from high school even though I know it has been many months now.  Where is the time going?

I am back and will blog at least weekly to keep everyone abreast of what project(s) I am working on.  Even though I have said in the past I would not work on more than one project at a time, well guess what.... never say never.  I have several project(s) I am doing at one time.....

I have been working on this piece for a while and I have to say I lost my mojo for cross stitching.  Seriously, yes!  It can happen to the best of us, but now that I am back this piece (which I believe is called Legion) will be finished over the holidays.  I am going to turn this piece into a pillow. 

Now that my mojo is back in full steam, I decided to cross stitch another piece.  This piece I believe is called Good Coffee, Good Tea.  This is a beautiful piece with a woman on the left hand side (one is holding coffee, the other is holding tea).  Most definitely this piece will be framed and hung in my kitchen. 







Along with my love for cross stitching, my other love is knitting.  Knitting is so soothing and for all you knitters can't you hear the click, click, click of the knitting needles?  This is the body of a teddy bear.  I have to make two pieces of the body, two pieces of the arms, two pieces of the legs, two pieces of the ears, one head, one snout and then sew it all together and stuff.  If you want to come and knit with me, this pattern is taken from Simply Baby by Debbie Bliss.  This is my first knitted teddy bear, so I am looking forward to seeing the final product.

Lastly, I am still working out, slimming down and still a member of Weight Watchers.  This dish is Baked Apples.  Man-o-man it is delicious, even my partner (Marvin) loved it.  The apples are cooked in a slow cooker and makes your home smells devine.  The taste is superb and the apples melts in your mouth.  If you are interested in this recipe, it can be found in the WeightWatchers Weekly November 4-10, 2012. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Weigh-in Wednesday (WW)

Weigh-in at Weight Watchers was great.  I have shedded another 2 lbs within a week.  Today, I did something for me to add as an incentive in my weight loss goal.  I bought a food scale and an exercise mat.  I have always wanted a food scale and it was on sale, yeah!  This scale is going to come in handy when it is time for me to measure my portion ounces.  I have an exercise dvd that really makes you sweat.  When I say sweat, you are sweating your buns off within 30 minutes and I have not gotten down to the abs section yet.  That's where the exercise mat is going to come in handy for my abs.  Since I have been walking and working out, I notice that my abs are going down but now I am ready to step it up by getting that firm tight belly.  Another part of my body that is going down is my butt.  Yeah, I said butt.  One morning I was walking and this lady that also walks came up to me and wanted to know how much I had lost because she said I was looking good.  When I told her, she said that she could tell I had lost weight but especially in my butt.  I took that as a great compliment.  I know there are a lot of women that wants a big butt; me, no way. 

The next thing about losing weight is that some people take a double look.  For instance today, I was walking down the hall and I happened to wave at a co-worker.  That man looked, looked, then he said is that you Tywanna?  He didn't recognize me.  Mind you, I do not mind the attention it is all fun and in good jest.  But I have run into someone from my childhood.  Marvin and I have been hanging out, just having a great time spending quality quiet times.  Doing all that quality time just sitting around watching movies on tv, cooking at home, talking about the past and present, we have not been on an actually date.  Friday is going to be our first date night.  I have dated guys in the past, but Marvin makes me think about life and look at life totally different.  Plus, he expresses himself well.  I am going to go a little bit deeper here, Marvin was the first boy that I was crazy about at age 10.  His sister and I were the same age, and I was crazy about Marvin.  After my mom and I moved from that area at age 10, I lost contact with a lot of friends.  Last year I was walking into Food Lion and guess who was coming out of Food Lion; if you said Marvin you are correct.  We spoke to one another but didn't carry on a conversation.  This year I had a chance to speak to him on speaker phone.  I only said Hi Marvin......, now this is where it gets surreal to me.  When I said those two words "Hi Marvin", there was a pause then he said is this Tywanna?  I gasped, because I was thinking to myself how does he know my voice.  In fact, I asked him that question after we started talking.  One of my closest friends said it is "destiny"! 

God's Nature Beauty

After returning home from my two miles walk, I noticed in my flower garden this gorgeous white rose with dew on it.

Right next to this gorgeous rose is a very beautiful sunflower.  My sunflower is ready for the sun to come out so that it can turn in the direction of the sun rays.  The story behind my sunflowers is that they are planted by the birds.  I have three bird feeders and birds can be messy with the seeds.

Along with sunflowers, I have noticed wheat and corn growing in my flower garden. 

What are you having for lunch.........

I am having for lunch zesty italian baked chicken breast, broccoli, potato salad and for dessert a quaker chocolate rice cake.  Before you even asked, yes I cooked everything you see here.  It smells and tastes so good.  As you can see by my plate, all food items are portion control except for the broccoli.  I can eat as much broccoli as I want.  Looking at my plate, what do you think would be the most heavy food?  If you said my potato salad, you are correct.  I even made it using light Duke's mayo.  I will never go back to regular mayo!

I haven't blogged in a while so let me update everyone on my weight loss progress.  To date, I have lost a total of 31.4 lbs.  I still have 40 lbs to go to reach my weight based on my height.  I have told lots of people that losing weight was the best decision I could have done for myself.  I feel great.  Also, joining weight watchers has helped a lot.  I love reading the success stories, I love their recipes of the day (in fact I have tried several of their recipes, which have been good), and I love tracking my food and activity points. 

I don't know all of you that is going through this journey with me, but hang in there for a brand new YOU.  I had my special friend (guy of course) tell me I look great.  By the way, he and my son (my son played a huge part in my weight lost) have not seen anything yet.  I have to admit I love the way my clothes are now looking and fitting on me.

Home Grown Veggies / WW Weigh-in

Y'all look at all these delicious veggies that I picked out of my parent's garden including the bell peppers in the basket.  If you have a craving for a great crunchy snack, cut up a bell pepper.  It is nothing for me to slice up a bell pepper, arrange in a bowl and recline in a chair watching a movie and eat away.  I can eat them plain or I will take 2 tbsp of ranch dressing and have a feast.  The only thing fattening about that dish is the salad dressing!

Today at ww weigh-in, I lost 4.6 lbs.  All you that is reading my blog and working with your weight lost goals, don't give up!  Set a realistic goal and stick with it.  For this week I commit to lose between 1-2 lbs, but if I lose more that is awesome too.  ~ TJ ~