It's been a while. On the crafting front, Quarter 2 has come and gone, and I did manage my goal, which was to enter something in the Indiana State Fair, preferably something new. I'm taking the sweater I made earlier this year, a lace shawl I just finished, a doily (if I get it finished in time), and a photo from our Colorado trip if I can get it printed and matted correctly in time. I don't have any great pictures of the shawl yet; I just wove in the last ends yesterday and it's all cloudy and overcast today (but hotter than hell, we've a 104/40 heat index right now, hate humidity). 

                     The doily is the image from the Ravelry page; I'm doing mine in a similar color and the plan is to frame it once it's back from the fair.















My plan for Quarter 3 is to get that doily finished and then get my sock count up- the Sunday group had made a plan to make 12 pairs this year, which turned into 12 socks. I've got 3 done now. Since I love handmade socks and would love to be able to wear only those, that's what I'm going to focus on- especially since it means I can largely work from stash.

In crafting related news, I realized I never posted a picture of the awesome birthday gift I got this year.  Getting using it down to an art is still a work in progress. Who knows, maybe next year I'll be entering some handspun into the fair as well.

 I've also been working on losing weight and am currently down 15lbs since February which was my highest weight... well, ever, really. Still have 47lbs more to go to get to my eventual goal, but it's coming along nicely enough. I'm not really dieting- I want this to last and therefore I'm making life changes and teaching myself how to eat properly. I come from a family of over eaters and portion control really is my downfall. I've also been better about taking the dogs for daily walks, I've started going for long bike rides on the Monon in Carmel/Westfield on my days off, and (most recently) I've started a running training program. Not exactly C25K but something similar. Never in a million years thought I would say this, but I'm actually enjoying the running parts.

Some of this is vanity, some of it is expenses (for example, it would be nice to consider $60 expensive for a bra rather than cheap), and some of it is health. My family is all overweight, though who knows how much of that is genetics and how much is eating habits, and I have a medical condition that makes me more prone both to be overweight and get diabetes (which is also made worse by the being overweight). Since I've no desire to deal with that, the medical aspects are some of the more important. I also like the fact that I can see the weight coming off (as can others, I've recently gotten some positive random comments) and I can feel myself getting stronger. True, the bad leg is throwing a fit, but not as bad as it used to do and the physical therapist I used to see would say that working it is the only way to have a chance of getting it better without surgery (which it will need eventually anyhow).