Recycled fashion
08 Feb 2012 Comments Off
in Dieting, Homelife, Weight Loss Tags: Beauty & the Beast, costuming, Diets, Etsy, prayer, The 17 Day Diet, Weight Loss
Yes, I know the stores in the U.S. are now going through an 80′s craze but that’s not what I mean.
In costuming 107 actors on zero budget, we sometimes have to get a bit creative. Like combing thrift stores and using valances and pillowcases to make skirts for our wee performers.
I have to say, I may have a special calling in this area. My “skirts du pillowcase” look pretty good. In the dark, from 20 feet away, I really don’t think anyone will know that those skirts are from the fashion house of Westpoint Pepperell. Especially if my little actors are short enough that I can hem up the entire white border that now makes up the bottom of the skirt. I’ll have to take a picture of them and post it.
I’m currently working on “skirt du valance”. I found a pair of lovely yellow & blue striped valances with a pink & green floral print on them. I ripped all the seams out of one so far and I think with an elastic waist and maybe some lace to lengthen the bottom, it will look quite nice on stage. And I have a second valance that I can either use as a ruffle with the skirt (if more length is needed) or to make another skirt. Yes, that is also the bane of being an actor in our productions-someone else is always wearing the same outfit.
Who knows, I may be able to open my own little Etsy shop if I get good enough at this. But what to call it? French Chick Recycled Fashion or Fashion on a Budget?
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On the diet front, today is the last day of my first 17 day cycle. I’ll weigh in tomorrow and share my progress.
I thought I’d be able to add bread back into my diet on the next 17 day cycle, but unfortunately for me I read that incorrectly. Bread does not get added back until after the first 34 days. Oh well. I’ve gotten used to ogling bread.
I do get to add “simple starches” back. Two servings every other day. Things like: a medium baked potato, a medium baked sweet potato, navy beans, red beans, kidney beans, corn, peas & split peas, pearled barley, brown rice, oatmeal and cream of wheat. There are other simple starches too, but these are the ones I would be most likely to add back. Well, not really on the cream of wheat. Too many bad memories of having to eat plain cream of wheat for breakfast during pregnancy because it was the only cereal that didn’t spike my blood sugar.
Keep praying for my success with this diet. My health depends on it. My sanity will be fine once we’re done with the costuming. And I was just kidding about the Etsy shop. I don’t have time for an Etsy shop.
Before the weekend
03 Feb 2012 Comments Off
in Dieting, Homelife, Weight Loss Tags: Beauty & the Beast, costuming, Diets, Hearth & Home, weekend rush, Weight Loss
Just a quick update on the weight loss before we get into the weekend rush of things to do.
My weight loss so far totals 10 pounds in 11 days. Not bad, though I hope to get more exercise in as I get used to this new addition to my routine.
Costuming for the play continues. Got some great bargains at the thrift store and hopefully this should just about complete those villagers. Picked up fabric and a pattern for our Enchantress’ skirt. Time to get cracking on those fairies’ skirts.
Enjoy your weekend!
Beauty and the Beast Jr.
30 Jan 2012 3 Comments
in Homelife Tags: Beauty & the Beast, Hearth & Home, Monday Morning Muse, musicals, People, plays, Quotes, theater
“If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.” George Bernard Shaw
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” Douglas Adams
The second quote is just in case this post only makes sense to me. :)
I realized that with the updates on DH’s cousin and my diet attempt, I haven’t updated this blog with news on Ditty & BooBoo. They are both in their school’s production of Beauty & the Beast Jr. Ditty’s part was originally to be a Narrator and fill in dancer during the opening “Belle” scene and also in the “Gaston” tavern scene. But fate being what it is, she was standing next to the Baker when they first rehearsed the opening scene and the Baker said his line “Marie, the baguettes! Hurry up!” at which time, the director realized that there was no Marie to rush over with the baguettes. So Ditty became Marie. Then I was watching them run the Gaston scene and realized they had put her behind the bar. So if the Baker married the Barmaid, did he do it for love or just to have a monopoly on the yeast and wheat? LOL. She is having lots of fun with this play and also has to be part of the “Mob’ scene too.
BooBoo was cast as a “Guest” meaning he could have been anything from a plate, knife, fork or spoon, to a cheese souffle, pie, or pudding en flambe. He was also scheduled to be a fill-in dancer/singer for the “Mob’ scene (where Gaston exhorts the crowd to kill the Beast). Instead he was placed in all the castle scenes as an enchanted column (yeah, the Roman pillar kind). He gets to move around: forward, backward, and side to side (enchanted things move), with little shuffling steps. This takes him out of the Mob scene since he needs to be in his column costume in every castle scene and the changing would need to happen too fast for him to keep up. But he is also happy with his part and thinks it will be great fun to keep people guessing where the column will be next.
So that’s the news of the household so far. Rehearsals, swimming lessons, scouts and wrestling are keeping us running. BooBoo’s new bedroom is practically on hold right now. I keep thinking that I can get to it if I can just get caught up with the housework and costuming for the play. Our Costumer put me in charge of the fairies and the villagers (including those who have parts in the Mob scene but might not be villagers in the Belle scene).
Finding leotards for the fairies is proving difficult. It would be easiest just to order what we need brand new, but budget constraints don’t allow for all new costumes. So the core group of volunteers have been scouring thrift stores in search of what we need. It hasn’t worked, so I will be speaking with the director to work out an alternative color scheme for the fairies. I may have to work out something entirely different for our lead fairy, the Enchantress, because I was just informed yesterday that she is allergic to spandex. Kind of puts a kibosh on the whole leotard thing for her. We don’t need a red-skinned (and I mean beet red) Enchantress. Thinking on it just now, maybe we could just attach the skirts to t-shirts and have the girls wear shorts under the skirts if needed.
Well, here’s to success in convincing the director to go for the changes!
Going away
28 Jan 2012 Comments Off
in Dieting, Weight Loss Tags: Diets, Goals, Hearth & Home, parties, Weight Loss
Not me.
DH & I attended a going away party last night for a friend of ours. He’s leaving for a new job in another state. It was a nice evening and a well attended party. It was held at a bar and food was available.
Yes, that’s where this post is going. My willpower survived the night. I had large glasses of ice water with a squeeze of lemon in them all night. And this after thinking that I wasn’t going to be able to get my eight glasses of water in yesterday. 
I was back to my old habit of not stopping what I was doing long enough to hydrate even a little throughout the day.
I also held firm in my resolve not to eat anything. I sat down with friends across the room from the food. My resolve almost slipped when our friend’s mom came around (twice!) with desserts. Thankfully she didn’t bring the K bars around the second time or I might have lost my fight. Cake doesn’t tempt me, certain types of bars however (oy!).
The night went well, then DH decided to indulge in a big taco and extra chips. I didn’t cave in. I was glad that he hadn’t put cheese on those chips. Again, another weakness of mine.
If nothing else, this diet is certainly showing me my food temptations. And at the grocery store yesterday, I found myself getting ready for the second 17 day cycle even though I was only on day 5 of the first. They had whole wheat pasta on sale for $1.39 per 16 oz. box, so I bought three boxes. On the whole though, I do spend far more time in the produce section than before. I also found out that the turkey taco salad I had for supper needs to be served on iceberg lettuce. The spring mix lettuce blend I had purchased tasted horrible with taco meat. It had too many strong, conflicting flavors.
Live and learn.
That’s all for now. A nice, quiet breakfast and mountains of housework await me. If you’re also on the dieting path, keep your chin up and your calories down.
The diet again & other things
26 Jan 2012 Comments Off
in Adversity, Dieting, Prayers, Weight Loss Tags: Diets, hit & run, prayers, The 17 Day Diet, turkey chili, Weight Loss
Sorry, didn’t mean to make this a diet blog. Just a quick update.
Day 3 went well. Even got in my exercise. Today I made turkey chili, no beans-they’re not allowed in the first cycle, and added extra veggies in the form of carrots & celery. You may not think carrots & celery belong in chili, but I can state, from my vast experience as a Girl Scout outdoor trainer making many pots of vegetarian chili, that they do. Plus I get to eat as many “cleansing vegetables” as I want so why not bulk up the chili, right?
Truly though, it’s the green tea that just gums up my determination. Tea in general and green tea in particular are about as appealing to me as stewed prunes. Oh well, slug it down and continue on.
A quick update on DH’s cousin. Last week was a much beter week. Mary was moved out of ICU and into rehab last Friday. She did have an infection then, but they have cured that. And since Tuesday, Jan 18th, there has been wonderful progress. Mary is more verbal. She sometimes speaks in full sentences (the Mary kind of sentences-long, complicated ones) where her parents & caregivers can only understand the first few words. The doctors say that is common at this stage. But sometimes she speaks in unprompted, full sentences that are clear. For example, her speech therapist was talking to her about the Westminster dog show and Mary said “What time is that on?”
She is off her feeding tube and is able to feed herself with a bit of help. She is also doing real well in physical therapy. She can even push the wheels on her wheelchair to move down the hall (albeit very slowly). Overall, the physical problems are healing nicely and the doctors are very happy with her neurological progress.
Thank you for your prayers up to this point and please continue to pray for this amazing young woman’s complete recovery.
Diet, Day 2
24 Jan 2012 Comments Off
in Dieting, Weight Loss Tags: Diets, The 17 Day Diet, Weight Loss
Well I’m only on day 2 and I’ve already oopsed.
I had to go into the suburbs to donate blood this morning and ran late for my appointment. And they were busy as all get out with platelet donors (they take more set up time than whole blood), so my 9:30 time got pushed back so far that I didn’t get out of there until noon.
Since all they had for post donation snack choices was cookies, pretzels, chex mix, and raisins, I decided to just grab a water. So far so good. Then I left the building and realized that it was noon and I had not eaten since breakfast at 7:30! Tried to remember which restaurants close by would offer salad, figuring that I could add grilled chicken & ask for dressing on the side. Drove to Perkins, all the salads had tons of other stuff on them that is not part of the diet-items like ham, bacon, breaded chicken. Then I saw the made to order omelettes.
Okay, I thought, this is doable. I’ll just order an omelette with lots of veggies, skipping the mushrooms because I don’t like them on eggs. What I didn’t realize was all the other stuff you get when you order an omelette. Did I want hashbrowns or country potatoes? Neither really, but I ordered the country potatoes because my willpower wasn’t up to walking away from hashbrowns. And did I want pancakes or toast, or for an extra 49 cents I could upgrade to a jumbo muffin? Ugh! I ordered whole wheat toast.
In retrospect, I should have ordered the pancakes. I can walk away from pancakes. I didn’t walk away from the toast. I didn’t eat both slices, only one of them. And I justified it by telling myself “Well, you’ve just given blood so you needed that to fill up/replace what was lost in donation/etc.”. No I didn’t “need” it. It just tasted really good. I promise that I did not put jelly on the toast. Buttered, even sparingly as they do it, was good enough for me.
The Diet
23 Jan 2012 Comments Off
in Dieting, Weight Loss Tags: Diets, Health, healthy eating, Hearth & Home, Monday Morning Muse, pound weight loss, Quotes, The 17 Day Diet, Weight Loss
“I’ve been on a diet for two weeks and all I’ve lost is two weeks” Totie Fields
Well, let’s hope that doesn’t happen to me.
It’s been a long time since I’ve written about weight loss. Mainly because I haven’t been trying to lose weight lately. I haven’t even been trying to maintain the weight that I had lost a couple of years ago.
That needs to change.
Today I started the first 17 day cycle of The 17 Day Diet. This may be the most difficult time for me. The first cycle cuts out all sugars (except low sugar fruits), all dairy (except for probiotic yogurt & fat free/low fat cottage cheese), and all grains.
Chicken & fish will be my main dietary staples, as will lots of vegetables and 2 fruit servings each day. Water will become my drink of choice rather than the drink I choose when there’s no more coffee in the pot or juice in the fridge.
Why go through this? Because I’m 5’5″ tall and currently weigh in at 210 pounds. There, I’ve said it. I am obese and I must lose this weight to regain my health. I’ve had back pain since last May that hasn’t gone away completely ever since that time. I carry most of the excess weight around my middle-which any doctor will tell you is bad and can contribute to heart disease.
I hate making New Year’s resolutions to diet simply because I feel it sets you up to fail. Think about it. Are you done with holiday celebrations just because it’s January 2nd? If your life is like mine, probably not. That’s why I waited to start this diet at a time when the party circuit would be waning. I hope that will help me to have more self control and a better attitude about the food I eat.
My goal is to lose 10 pounds per month. If I can do this, that would mean a 50 pound weight loss by the beginning of summer here in the great, white, frozen north. I would be down to 160 pounds, a weight I have not seen since I was pregnant with Ditty (for those who haven’t been keeping track-she’s 13 years old).
Exercise is also a part of The 17 Day Diet. For this first cycle, the commitment is to exercise once per day, every day for 17 minutes. And it must be aerobic exercise because that helps your body burn the weight off. It also gets you into the habit of moving your body. That’s important because you can’t lose weight permanently without developing an exercise habit.
So, here I go. Wish me luck. And if you’re the praying type, pray that I succeed. I’d like to be around to dance at my children’s weddings and dangle the still ethereal grandkids on my knees (the kind of knees that don’t hurt because they’ve been carrying an overweight grandma around for the five minutes it took to walk from car to couch).
Short weeks
16 Jan 2012 Comments Off
in Homelife, Monday Morning Muse Tags: Hearth & Home, Monday Morning Muse
Short school weeks can be either a blessing or a curse. A blessing since I get the kids home an extra day. A curse because it means getting everything that needs to be done finished in less time because I’ve got the kids home an extra day.
Oh, they do their chores around the house. I just don’t care to do mine when they are home.
Breaking the rules
15 Jan 2012 Comments Off
in Adversity, Homelife, Prayers Tags: brain shear, fantastic news, head injury, Hearth & Home, hit & run, Illness, prayer, prayers, university of colorado, university of colorado boulder
I’m breaking our house rule of no computers on Sunday to bring you an important update.
DH’s cousin spoke! Yesterday morning, for the first time since the accident 9 days ago, she spoke. She said “My neck doesn’t hurt” in response to a question.
I’m smiling and crying and want to leap for joy! This is such fantastic news. She still has a long way to go in her recovery, but for now at least, we can rejoice in this victory.
Please keep her in your prayers. And thank you for praying with us.
Post on a diet
31 Jan 2012 Comments Off
by thefrenchchick in Dieting, Weight Loss Tags: Diets, Goals, The 17 Day Diet, Weight Loss, weird comments
Well! All I can say is: post on a diet (or any other hot topic) and you’ll get all kinds of spam!
My chicken chow mein page is getting all kinds of weird comments from the spambots. I mean really, what does my thoughts on global expansion have to do with making homemade chicken chow mein? Do they expect me to can it ala Chun King and market it all over the world? I’m a mom-I really don’t have that kind of time on my hands.
Unless of course, they’d like to come over and clean my house, do my laundry, and run all my errands. Nah, even then it would take quite a team effort and way more capital than I can expend.
And no, cutting out shopping at Target and Walmart will not significantly increase our bottom line. You’ve been listening to DH too much. I don’t even have time to shop lately.
The diet on the other hand seems to be going quite well. By the looks of my scale, I’ve lost 9 pounds in 8 days. Okay, that should be motivation enough to stay off the carbs for the next 9 days. At least I hope so. Truth be told, I’ve never craved a couple slices of whole wheat bread more.
Some people miss the doughnuts, cake, or cookies, but I miss the wheat bread and popcorn. I know you probably find that hard to believe given what my weight was at the start of this diet. Really though, doughnuts never held much sway with me. They’re okay once in awhile, but I’d never knock anyone down to get one. And cake, bleah. Frosting, real buttercream frosting, I like and that was only offered on top of cake. So that was the only reason I’d actually eat cake-for the frosting. I don’t miss the cake and I only slightly miss the frosting (again, not enough to mug somebody). Cookies are nice. I know that someday I will reach my goal weight and then I’ll be able to enjoy 1 or 2 cookies. And being a Girl Scout mom, I know that those cookies will be waiting for me in my freezer. After all, I can’t let the kiddo down just because I’m on a diet.
But why whole wheat bread and popcorn? At our house, the only “health kick” DH would ever agree to was swapping out the squishy white bread we used to buy for whole wheat or even multigrain bread. I’ve always liked it and our kids grew up eating it. My life being what it is (hectic at times and chaotic at others), a sandwich at lunch or even a couple slices of toast in the morning was really relaxing.
Basically, I hope the next 9 days go by in a blur because Phase 2 of this diet actually allows me to have bread. Still can’t have the peanut butter but even dry bread with my bowls of soup sounds wonderful.
If you’re journeying on a diet with me, I offer prayers for your success and mine.