Happy Monday!

Had another great weekend with my son in Charlotte. It's always such a joy to see his sweet smiling face. I'm one blessed mother!

Had my weekly weigh-in this morning and was up .2 of a pound. I'm not depressed at all (highly unusual for impatient me) because I know I did pretty well food wise. I'm just thinking of this morning as a clean slate and hopefully next week I'll have a good weight loss to report! One thing I'm fairly sure of is that I lose better when I do the low carb type things, concentrating on protein and veggies (things I don't like). This week I ate way too many of those Popchips, vitalicious treats, and other Weight Watcher sweet cake type snackies (things I do like). Oh well ... at least I stuck with the program and didn't gain a ton of weight like I was doing just about a month ago.

TGIF and Vintage Necklace Update

Here's a vintage necklace that I repurposed last night. It was an inexpensive necklace that I picked up at a thrift store for fifty cents - one of the sixties styles with three rows of beads. I took it apart and made a beautiful pair of earrings from two of the larger beads and some of the end caps, a simple little bracelet and a one-strand eighteen inch necklace. I have tons of beads left that I can use for other projects or to fashion earrings for friends!

Here's my big tip for you gals that like to dabble in making your own jewelry. Well, actually, I have two great tips.
1. Always look at thrift stores for inexpensive beaded necklaces. Often times you can pick them up to use for the beads at a much less expensive cost than buying new beading materials at Michaels or some other craft store.
2. I saved my BEST tip for last. I've made jewelry for years now and can't believe that I just thought of this a few months ago - at least for personal jewelry that I will be wearing myself. Please notice in the necklace picture the larger than normal clasp and ring! What a huge timesaver and convenience this is in the morning as I get ready for work! It's so easy to fasten my own necklaces now! Why didn't I think of that earlier?

I've really found that putting on a pair of earrings and matching necklace can quickly and inexpensively "dress up" a simple outfit. I think these, for example, would look beautiful with a white blouse (I'm loving the Coldwater Creek no iron line) and pair of slacks. Now, I don't know that I would wear all three pieces above together but I think wearing the earrings and bracelet or the earrings and necklace would be a really sharp look!

Really glad that today is Friday! We're staying in town this weekend so I have tons of housework to catch up on. That's the bad news. But the good news is that I always feel so much better (and in control) when the house is all clean and neat. A special treat for my husband and I is getting up on Saturday morning and going to a local restaurant for breakfast. It's not expensive at all, and it is just a great time to chat and plan out our weekend. We've missed the past few weekends because of travel, but I have a feeling we'll go out tomorrow morning.

A new month and a new bracelet!

Happy February!

Just can't believe February is already here! Wow!

I'm still doing well on the Weight Watchers online program. After the initial weight drop I can tell things are slowing down, but it still feels good that my clothes aren't as tight and that I know I am eating far healthier than I was. Hip, hip, hooray for me! My two "lessons" so far are: 1. No eating between meals, and 2. Don't have the "good stuff" (even if it is Weight Watcher type things) in the house.

Found out yesterday that my husband will be having back surgery soon. I dread that for him (and me) but know that it is something that needs to be done - the sooner the better actually.

Above is a little bracelet I whipped together last night. It's made from beautiful vintage glass beads from an old necklace. I'm loving the color and simplicity. I used to make a lot of charm type bracelets from vintage bits of old jewelry but for some reason I'm preferring to wear the simpler pieces right now.