I did create a Category at the Top of my Blog – the drop down will take you to each piece currently in my WIPocalypse rotation. As other pieces are started, a page will be added for it! And each piece will be marked DONE as they are completed!

My original WIPocalypse post can be found here!

Looking forward to making some progress this next month!

I hesitated joining, as my list is not that long really, but was encouraged by Melissa to join, so I did!

I’ll be taking pictures and linking them later today of the current progress on each!

Current WIPS for 2012:
Magnolia Pixie – Mirabilia
Hannah Beeby – Timeless Designs
Mary Wigham
America, Land that we Love
My Lady Quaker

New Starts in 2012:
Moonlit Garden – Blackbird Designs
6 Fat Men – Lizzie Kate
Mirabilia Round Robin (8 rounds) at TWRRB
Letter T – Nora Corbett
LHN Ornie of the Month ornaments (22 total)

You can read more about the 2012 WIPocalypse here.

And here’s the crazy list of participants so far!!

I’ve spent a great deal of time organizing all of my Cross stitch supplies and making lists, etc.

I’m going to spend the time and do the same thing with my scrapbooking supplies. I need to make a list of WIPs there as well, and work to make progress on some of this stuff!

This is my jar of orts (thread scraps) from 2011.  It’s kind if fun to look back and see what you stitched through out the year this way.

I started stitching in April, and quite quickly finished this piece for my Grandmother: (I must have missed taking a “final” picture, as I sewed buttons between each section in the final piece).

Once that was done, I started stitching on this next piece. I stitched on it for about 10 days in April and May, and then picked it back up in October – finished it on October 29th, 2011. This was for my Parents, and depicts the day they got married, and their initials.

I then did a very quick stitch for my BFF, Melissa. I finished it up in just a few days.

My next finish was for my other BFF, Jill. Her and her family graciously keep my dogs while I’m away on business travel. I will forever be indebted to them! I finished this one in the middle of November.

In November I began a SAL (stitch-a-long) with some girls on Facebook for this next piece. Anyone who knows me, knows I love sunflowers! When I saw this pattern, and found out about the SAL I had to do it! I finished it Thanksgiving weekend.

And, I also finished a couple of ornaments (at least the stitching part), in December. These are part of a set of 24 that I’ve collected for the past 2 years from Little House Needleworks Ornament of the Month series. My goal is to try to finish at least one ornie a month from here on out!

Fa La La:

Pear Tree:

I diligently worked on another piece for most of December, and into the New Year, and finally finished it last night for my first 2012 finish, but as the intended gift-ee reads my blog, and they have yet to receive it for a few more weeks, I can’t post a picture yet. Once it’s been delivered I will post it though! Those who follow me on Facebook will know what I’m talking about!!

Long time no post! Oops!

Traveling is still going … I’m in Illinois right now! I was going to go into Chicago this weekend, as I’ve never been there, but it’s been so hot and humid (heat index of up to 115 degrees) that I decided to forgo that trip and hang out instead.

I spent last weekend with a group of dear friends scrapbooking for the weekend! It was great fun, and Amanda, Nicole and I even took a break Saturday morning to go see the “brunch” showing of Harry Potter. For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook you know my opinion on the HP movies, but I have to say, this last movie was really good! (If you like Rom-Coms I highly recommend Friends With Benefits as well – saw it yesterday it was definitely a cute movie!)

I’m in “organize” mode these days. I’m going through my “stash” and taking a hard line one what I have versus what I NEED. In that vain, I’ll be throwing some stuff up for sale, starting today. For now, I’m starting with about 15 or so stamp sets, but once I get home, I will be adding more to that page! If you’re interested in anything, just let me know!

For Sale!

From my phone again.

Testing from my phone…

I’m a few days late in joining in, but figured it would be a good way to set some goals for myself for the month of May!

So, my May goals:

• Journal my food … good, bad, and ugly
• Blog at least 2 times a week (I missed April all together – OOPS)
• Make a new recipe at least once a week, and blog about it
• Starting tomorrow, May 6th, accumulate 200,000 steps throughout the rest of May. That’s 8,000 steps a day minimum. Melissa came up with that goal and I LOVED it (she started the 1st of May though and is shooting for 250,000 steps).

That’s about it! If you’re interested in reading more about the Challenge, I’ve added a button on the Right to the Sisterhood!

I have a ton of pictures to post, more scrapbook pages to share, and more stuff in general to talk about. I go home tomorrow and will be home for 17 days (w00t), so I’ll be catching up on my Blogging while I’m home! Stay tuned …

We’re already a 1/4 of the way through 2011. So crazy! The last several months have gone by really fast. I’m sure a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that there have been so many changes in my life – great changes!! I’m happy with my job, I’m happy with where I live, and I love that I live in a town where I have friends close to me again! I forgot how nice it was to be able to get together with someone with NO notice!

Anyway, off track.

A new month. What is it with new months? It’s kinda like Monday’s for me. It always feels like a good time for a new start. And if the first day of a month falls on a Monday? Even better! Of course the next time a new month starts on a Monday isn’t until August. Can’t wait that long. So, I’m going to appease myself with the fact that tomorrow is the first day of a Quarter as well! Totally irrelevant, I know, but it makes me feel better m-kay?

In a previous post I mentioned a “list” – and putting the fact that I make a habit of eating at drive throughs on this “list”. This list is a list of things that I need to work on to make myself healthier and even happier.

My goal for this new month, and new quarter (HA!), is to work on this list and create new habits that stick. The thing is, I have to be realistic about it. I spend more than half of any given month in a Hotel. That’s just a fact of life for me. It means that I’m going to eat a certain amount of foods in a restaurants. I just have to make better choices. It’s possible, I just have to do it. It’s not even about learning to make better choices – I know what I should eat compared to what I shouldn’t eat. I’m an “expert” when it comes to that. But knowing and implementing are two very different things, as most of us know.

Without further ado, I present to you The List:

• Drink a minimum of 64 oz of water each day
• No pop – not even diet
• No fried foods – because of the eating out I will be doing, this is the best compromise I can make, but I think it’ll make a difference
• Track my food, regardless of how much or how little – track everything
• Do some sort of exercise – whether in the Hotel “gym” or in my room w/ a DVD
• Order non-fat at Starbucks, its so simple, but it’s not something I remember to do
• Take my Vitamins daily!
• Have beef only 1-2 times a week. Choose chicken and fish otherwise.
• Check in weekly on the Blog w/ a status update on the above List

For now, I think that’s all. I’ll likely add to that list as I go, but for now, it’s a good start.

Till next time!

I realized as I was going through the pictures I took before I left that I thought I had already shared the Luau pictures, but had only actually shared one of those pages. I’ll have to take pictures of those when I get home though!

So for today I’m going to skip to the snorkeling pictures! We went to Hanauma Bay early one morning for snorkeling. Melissa had never been snorkeling before, so we were looking forward to it. While the breeze was up, and it wasn’t the perfect day to snorkel, we still had fun and it was totally worth going to the Preserve!

The pictures aren’t the best, but I was in a hurry! LOL

This is a picture of Melissa! And then some of the fish we saw – it was pretty murky cause of the wind and rougher water.

And finally this last picture when we were leaving. You can see in the top left picture the hill that we walked down to get to the Bay, well, we decided we weren’t walking up it! We took the handy-dandy Tram ride up! Overall it was a great day!