Piles and piles and piles

I have not done any sewing for a couple of days. I have made my two oldest boys a string quilt. So I am now completing a string quilt with a spiderweb effect for son #3 and his girlfriend (soon to be wife on Feb 14th). I have top and bottom sashing to sew on and then the binding and this quilt will be done. Sashing, quite often, is a frame of fabric around the body or individual squares of the quilt. Like a picture, a quilt can have the quilt body (the picture), then a sashed border (the matting), another sashed border (the frame), and then the binding (decoration on the frame). This particular quilt, when done, will have the quilt body, sashing in a green color, then a string pieced sashing, another width of sashing in blue and then the binding. The pieced part and the blue go on as one piece because of how I have chosen to back this quilt. This quilt is a "back as you go" quilt, so when you get done all that is left is the binding. If I were to do this again, I would chose to do nothing larger than a full size quilt. The quilt I am making is queen sized and it is definitely getting unwieldy. I will not be getting much sewing done today either, piles and piles and Piles of laundry!

Diet is such an awful word. As Garfield has observed: "It is DIE with a t at the end!" So that is why I am using protocol. Yesterday went fairly well. SH (sweet hubby) made me a breakfast, carefully adhering to what I can and cannot have. I had my little square of bread. Boy did I want more. As with most dietary restrictive regimens, there are cravings. The reason for these cravings is your body's stockpiles for emergencies. Your body stockpiles fuel by storing fat. Your body stockpiles carbs by storing a three day supply of blood sugar in the liver. The liver releases these blood sugars on a regular basis. When these sugars are discharged your pancreas panics and releases too much insulin, thus the cravings. This is why the first three days (or so) are the most difficult. We are trying to get rid of the surplus blood sugars and your body is rebelling! Once these sugars are gone, and you limit you carb intake appropriately, your pancreas can "rest" and then the reprogramming can begin! Oh, and the by product of this is...drum roll please...WEIGHT LOSS!! I pulled out my bag of veggies and munched on them through out the day. Lunch was more veggies with cream cheese thrown in the mix (low-fat is recommended but not mandatory.) Dinner was a deliciously tender pot roast with potatoes and carrots and onions with a very nice gravy. Oh wait...I can't have potatoes...or carrots...or gravy. It smelled so-o-o good. I had the meat and some green beans. At least I could have the onions that were cooked with the roast. Those kind of veggies always taste so good. Hubby was a dear and ate those other veggies for me. Then he got the rest out of sight and packaged them up for his lunch for the next couple of days. And about those cravings. I am so glad I went out and got some nuts. Nuts are allowed at this stage of the game. The ice cream was calling to me relentlessly, especially the Southern Crunch Butter Pecan. I am the only one in the house that will eat it. It will just have to wait. Eventually I will be able to have some. Portion control will be very important. Not only is this a "protocol" it will be a lifestyle change.

We got the guest room cleaned up and able to accommodate guests. We used to call it "the white" room. Now we may have to call it "the Princess-and-the-Pea Room". We put our former queen set (we upgraded to a king) on top of a waterbed frame our second son gave us. We are gonna have to eliminate the box spring. The bed is three feet tall! Wonderful for nine year old boy but for us older folks, not so much. You need a step ladder to get in bed! We now have to figure out what to do with the full size bed. We upgraded the guest bed. Our youngest kinda wants the full. He has some issues he has to deal with before that can happen. I have an idea for a Murphy bed. Will have to think on it some more.

The living room is done. The guest room is done. Tonite we will work on the kitchen-dining-family rooms. This is pretty much all one space. We would like to get this all cleaned so we can rent a steam cleaner this weekend.