Today felt like a good day to do some blog catch-up, so here goes. As part of Hugh's job he has to travel a lot, and when he's gone for a couple days or more I get restless and spend all his money (ok, not all of it, but a good sum!) Plus, I enjoy surprising him when he gets home with all the new stuff I did...even though I'm generally MUCH more excited about it than he. These are a couple pictures of some of my projects.
I actually hung more stuff in other areas of the apartment, but this was the majority of it. It took about three days to do everything, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Tell you what though, hanging all those frames by yourself is no joke.
I only had one thing of yarn to do the wreath and it wasn't enough to completely go around twice, so I used more felt flowers than planned to cover up all the single layer bit. Next time I make one of these I'll try and coordinate the colors better with the color of the door. Ohhh well.
A few weeks ago we were on a walk when we found a litter of kittens in a gravel lot and no mother. I didn't want to take the kittens home that night in case the mother was just gone to get food, so I kept my eyes open for her and decided to wait until the next day before doing anything more. Long story short the mother never showed and I ended up taking the kittens (4 total) to a local shelter which happened to be closed that day, but the volunteers working agreed to keep them because they were so young. I initially guessed they were about 2 weeks because they were TINY, but the shelter worker said they were only 1 week at most. Their eyes weren't even open yet! I'm pretty emotional about animals, especially strays; the poor woman at the shelter probably thought I was absolutely crazy when I came in bawling my eyes out blubbering on and on about little kittens, and "I didn't know what to do," and "I just want them to be ok," etc. Whatever. This is about as good of a picture as I could get.....and it is awful. Sorry. Just trust me when I say they were precious.
Hugh and I are members of the
San Diego Master Chorale, which has been a wonderful experience thus far. This week both of us auditioned and were selected for solos this Fall Season. Hugh is the soloist on the piece "The Dying Soldier" (arr. by Mack Wilberg) and on a portion of a
Porgy and Bess medley. I'm the soloist on a piece called "Benedictus." We're both very pleased with our opportunities.
And now for my most favorite news of all! In between all of this I have been going to the gym (YMCA) at least 3-5 times a week, which I was happy with, but felt as though I wasn't getting the most out of my time at the gym. So, I signed up for the YMCA's "Shift" program, an intensive four week competition between all those who signed up at my gym, and those who were participating at the other east county YMCA facility. The program entailed meeting with a trainer 3 times a week, attending at least one other class at the gym every week, and keeping a food log. At the beginning of the month I felt like I was going to die, I just wasn't in very good shape. Four weeks later I am pleased to say that I not only completed the program, but I WON!! Wahoooooooooo! I may not have lost the most weight, but I had the highest percentage of overall improvement. The first day of "Shift" we did weigh in, measurements, a mile run, sit-ups for 2 minutes, and push-ups for a minute thirty. I only lost 2 pounds BUT I lost four inches around my waist, one inch around my chest, two total around my legs, and.....
zero around my arms. That means that I gained a good amount in muscle, which I am stoked about. Also, I more than doubled the amount of both sit-ups and push-ups within the given time and knocked almost 2 minutes off my mile time. I know this post is really braggy, but I'm just SUPER proud my myself. Anyway that's all for now. Here's a fantastic picture of the cat to leave you with.
