Gelli Art and VBS

WOW!  I knew it had been a loooooooooooooong time since I posted here, but didn't realize it was 2 months!  All of May and June have zippppppped right by, so we will leave it at that!  :D

I have been posting the craft projects over on facebook that the kids will be doing during VBS.  I'm having a really hard time deciding what the Juniors and Youth age will be doing.  I've changed my mind SEVERAL times!  I finally decided on a couple to begin with.  The one to be started on Day 2 of VBS is a bit involved, so I decided to explain the process here.

Day 1 - Juniors and Youth
A cute maze using gift boxes and straws from $Tree.  Each gift box will serve 2 kids.  I created the maze in my scrapbooking program and printed them out.  I cut up 4 straws for each maze.  Ended up buying high-bounce balls to replace the marbles I could NOT find for the project!

Day 2 Junior/Youth
Handmade Book

To learn more of what Gelli Art is, watch this YouTube video by Lindsay, the Frugal Crafter.  She shows what you do with this so I don't have to explain it!  Click here ---> How to make a gelatin place and prints (down in the right corner, you can click to get rid of the ad that will start).

So, I found these plastic trays at the $Tree and decided they were the perfect size for making prints.  So, I made this one last night and let it set up overnight.

So, I squirted a few drops of acrylic craft paint on the molded gelatin.

Next, I spread the paint out.  I really didn't have enough paint and it dried pretty quickly and I couldn't get it spread out quite the way I wanted it.  I wanted the colors to blend more.

The next step is to press your paper into the paint, grab a corner of the paper and lift the "print."
You can tell where I laid the paper.  You can also see some of the original drops of paint that were too dry to spread.  I forgot to take a photo of what the paper looked like.
Also, I found out pretty quickly that the center of the plastic tray was raised instead of laying flat and touching the surface of the desk.  Hence, the left over paint there in the center.  The paint would not release and the gelatin was very thin in that spot.

 

 Next I wanted to add some flowers.  So I used a hot pink and pale orange and spread it out quicker than I did the first time and the paint spread better.

I had 2 of the same stencils that I wanted to use for the flowers so the book would have matching front and back cover.  The object was to lay the stencils in the paint and use a piece of paper to pull up the paint from around the flowers to leave paint under only the areas of the flowers.

Here's the paper I used to pick up the paint.

Then I laid my paper for the book back down so the flowers would be on top of the blue, green and yellow background.  But, there was still too much of the orange and pink color left in the area where I wanted the paint to be removed and you can't hardly make out the flowers and my first background is just about all disappeared.

 This is the back side of the cover (inside cover).  This is showing the paint I picked up after I made the first lift with each set of colors.

 And this is just all the left over paint I pulled up to clean the gelatin mold off.

 So now I wait for the paper to dry before I work on the paper for the inside of the book.  I'll work on that tomorrow.  We will take 2 days for this craft.  I will be making some more gelatin "plates" to use during VBS so more than one person will be able to work at a time.  While some are making their covers, some will be working on their inside pages.

 I decided to melt down the gelatin and re-mold it using one of those acrylic box-type frames.  It is basically the same size as the green tray, but it is more sturdy.  I found the most level surface in the kitchen (the stove top) and poured the melted gelatin in.  It is setting up overnight.  I will be anxious to try it out again!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Revive us again!
Fill each heart with thy love!
May each soul be rekindled with fire from above!
Hallelujah!  Thine the glory!
Hallelujah!  AMEN!
Hallelujah!  Thine the glory!
Revive us again!

We had a wonderful revival of our spirits and souls this week, praise the Lord and Bro. Jim Park!  If you should be so inclined, the messages have been posted on our church website under Resources.

We had a potluck meal at church today and I ate more than I intended to!  But, that's OK.  I got it out of my system and will be ready to start back on track tomorrow.

Tammy asked about the 3-day Military Diet.  You can find all the information HERE on this blog.  I will be cleaning up the kitchen from my mess I made cooking my food for the church dinner and then making a grocery list and will start the diet again on Tuesday.

Have a blessed week, everyone!

Still Counting

Well, the scales showed another loss of 1.4 lbs from yesterday!  I'll take it!  :D

It has been a very busy day!  Cleaning, laundry, cooking, revival, groceries, walking.............Tim has been sick and didn't even go to church last night due to running a fever.  When he gets a cold, he seems to always run a fever.  Then it breaks and he immediately begins to get better!  His voice was 90% better today!  He felt well enough to go walking with me!  :D

While walking yesterday, I lost count of my laps, but thought I had "recovered" but today's walk proved that what I thought I walked yesterday was actually a lap short!  So instead of walking 2 miles in half an hour I walked 1 2/3 miles.  I know this because we did the same pace today.  So instead of walking 4 mph yesterday I did 3 mph.  Same for today.  That's ok!  I'll take it!  :D

I'm trying very hard to watch what I eat!  But, I'm dreading the church dinner tomorrow!  It will be so hard to resist all that good food!

And I have decided that on Monday I will start up the Military diet again and I plan to make substitutions where I want this time around and see what effect it has on the results of the weight loss.

Have a blessed Sunday!

Day 3 and Results of 3-Day Military Diet

It seemed that there was not much food to be had today!  :(  But I stuck to it.....except that I made a substitution in the dinner meal.

So, this was dinner for last night, add to this 1/2 banana and 1/2 c. vanilla ice cream!  I chose to eat the broccoli and carrots raw!  YUM!  The hot dogs are Turkey Franks that I fixed in the toaster oven.  I must say they were pretty good!  So, we ate at 3:30.  I was hungry by bed time, to say the least!  :D

Now, here is what today's (Thursday) breakfast was ..... 5 saltines, 2 oz (2.5 slices) cheddar cheese and an apple!  Not much!

Lunch was a hard boiled egg and a slice of bread.  You can see how I creatively made an egg sandwich using my skinny bread.  It actually was not too bad!  When I fry an egg, it is usually this hard, anyway!  Don't want anything running!  :D

So, I weighed this morning and found that my total weight loss for the 3 days was 9.4 lbs!  WOOHOO!  I haven't totally decided if I am going to do it again after the 4 days off or not.  We will see how I do with my weight during that 4 days off!  :D  We have a church dinner coming up on Sunday, which is NOT a good thing!


So, for today I ate a serving of oatmeal with 1 tsp sugar and cinnamon.  For lunch I had 1/2 grapefruit and a bunch of baby raw carrots.

I had to go to Walmart for some more water, so I decided to go to the park over by the library to walk first.  As you can see from the picture, it was a beautiful day for walking!  The track is 1/3 mile around and I made 6 laps in 30 minutes!  So, I was quite pleased with that!  That is the same pace Tim and I did back in 2002 when we were on the weight watchers points diet and walked every day.   I just hope I can keep myself motivated into doing this every day!  And even increasing my time.....eventually!

I didn't get  a picture, but Tim and I had home made vegetable soup for dinner.  It was absolutely DELICIOUS!  :D

Before I took my shower for church, I decided to wash all the yellow pollen off of my car.  This picture doesn't do the pollen justice!  It was a MESS!

Tim said it looked like a new car when I finished!  :D  At least the outside does!

That wraps it up for today!  Time for bed!

Day 2 Results

I was so tired after not sleeping well on Monday night that I went to bed at 8 p.m. on Tuesday and slept (give or take a few) 12 hours!  Slight headache was still hanging on.  But I took some Excedrine and took a nice hot bath and it disappeared for the most part!

Breakfast:
1 egg, 1 slice toast, 1/2 banana

I used a non-stick skillet for my egg so that I would not have to use any grease.  It still stuck!  I put the egg on one slice of the skinny, round bread and it was very good!

Lunch:
1 c. cottage cheese, 1 hard boiled egg, 5 saltine crackers

I like to eat at lunch at 11 so that by 1 I've digested the food and I can walk.  I cannot walk on a full stomach.  I get cramps and just feel miserable!  I needed to go to Walmart to get more water, so I did that before my walk.

1:30 - time to hit the pavement!  I changed up my route today.  I started at the car port, walked up the parking lot and over and around the fellowship hall out and around the back of the church property, back around the church by the weeping willow tree, down the parking lot, up the drive, across the property by the road, back down the side of the house next to the field beside the house and back to the car port.  In the half hour, I was able to do 7 laps as described and a couple laps around just the parking lot.

I took this picture because one of the songs I listened to on my cardio tape was the song by Carole King, I Feel the Earth Move (under my feet).  You can see the ear phone wires hanging down and the tape player clipped over the top of my pants.

Dinner:
2 turkey hot dogs (no bread), 1 c. broccoli, 1/2 c. carrots, 1/2 banana and 1/2 c. vanilla ice cream

I cooked the hot dogs in the toaster oven because I cannot eat hot dogs boiled!  Instead of cooking the broccoli, I ate it raw.  I did the same to the carrots.  It was a good meal, but for some reason I was hungry an hour after I ate!  But I did not snack!

Water intake today:  120 oz.

Tomorrow is my last day!  Anxious for Friday to roll around so I can see how much weight I loose!  That will tell me whether the diet was worth it or not!  If so, I will probably do it again and make some allowed substitutions!

Day 1 Results

WOOHOO!  I am so excited to tell you that I am DOWN 6.8 pounds today!!!

OK, I told myself that I would not weigh in again until AFTER this 3 day diet kick start!  BUT, I could tell that I was down something, so I took a peek!  :D  Don't forget, however, that I really started cutting back on Monday.  And even though the scales did not show that yesterday morning, I believe that had something to do with that much of a weight drop for today!  That AND the fact that I drank 100 oz. of this yesterday..............

Now, I have to tell you that I was not thrilled about drinking that much water.  However, I made sure to drink one with/after each meal and during/after walking and one before bed. 

So, Monday started out REALLY EARLY.....4:30 a.m.  Why?  Because we needed to be at the hospital by 6:00 a.m. for a member of the church receiving a pace maker.  So, I ate the following for breakfast between 5:10 and 5:20 or so when we had to leave:

Breakfast:
1/2 grapefruit, 1 slice toast, 2 tablespoons pnut butter, cup of hot tea (unsweetened)

I don't eat much grapefruit because it upsets my stomach if I eat too much of it, but the grapefruit was DELICIOUS!!!  For the toast, I bought whole wheat "Sandwich Skinnys" at Aldi.  They are round and only 100 calories for both "slices" instead of the normal 100 calories/slice of the normal sliced whole wheat bread we have in the freezer.  I toasted them and spread 1 tablespoon of pnut butter on each.  Had to finish one slice and the rest of the tea on the way to the hospital.  I was worried about drinking the tea without sugar.  But I had no problem as I washed down the pnut butter toast with it.

We got home around 10 a.m. and Tim and I were both ready for lunch!  :D  However, we held off til 11.

Lunch:
1/2 c. tuna, 1 slice toast, hot tea

I really had to choke the tuna down!  So I took a bite of tuna, followed by a bite of bread and washed it down with some tea.  I saved 1/2 of the "sandwich skinny" to eat after the tuna was gone, hoping it would take care of the taste of the tuna that was left in my mouth.  Not so much.  I tasted the tuna ALL AFTERNOON!!!

1:00 - 1:30 p.m.  I walked around the parking lot and the church property.  The sun came out at one point and the headache I already had was starting to increase.  So I walked in the shade of the fellowship hall (about 30 feet one way) for about 5 minutes until my music tape ended.  Then I finished my session by going out behind the fellowship hall and around the back of the property and back to the house.

2:45 p.m. I began working on Tim's dinner of chicken stir fry in Teiyaki sauce.  It sure smelled good!  :D  There were several instances of being tempted to take a taste!  BUT, I didn't!

Dinner:
3 oz. chicken, 1 c. french-style green beans, 1/2 banana, 1 sm. apple, 1 c. vanilla ice cream

The suggestion was to cook the green beans in with the chicken for some added flavor (I am allowed to add salt and pepper, but I am trying not to) and it did help!  I sliced up the banana and added it to the ice cream, which was DELICIOUS!!!  Then I "washed" everything down with the apple.  Let me tell you!  THAT seemed like a LOT of food for some reason!  I was totally stuffed!

By 7 p.m. I had such a bad headache that I took my pms and at 8 was in bed!  I had not slept well Monday night, so getting up at 4:30 and not having slept much probably contributed to the headache.  I still have the headache today, but it is tolerable so far.  And I am blowing my nose like crazy, so hopefully that will eventually take care of the sinus aspect of the headache!

And, I've started Day 2, but I'll be back later tonight to "account" for it!

Accountability

Today is D Day.....but not the D Day some of you are thinking of.....................this was diet day...........the beginning.  And my accountability (some of it) is right here with YOU! 

So, here's a rundown of my day.
Brunch at 10:30
oatmeal with cinnamon and a bit of sugar
Dinner at 3:30
vegetable soup (a bowl and a half)

To drink today I finished up the last inch of coke from the 2-liter.  That will be the last coke I have for quite awhile.  The rest of the day I drank water.

I also did 27 minutes of walking.  I had Tim bring up the Nordik Trak form the basement, but after trying 4 or 5 times off and on through the day to "work" it, I gave up and decided walking on the ground was best for me!  :D

 The beast!  Tim and I had one of these about 10 years ago.  For some reason (probably age, lol) I had no problems working it.  Anyway.....................

................I'll just stick to the old fashioned walking!  I started out saying to myself that I was only going to do 15 minutes.  But, as I walked I decided I needed to walk at least as long as the music lasted on one side of the tape!  So, it turned into a 27 minute walk.  Pretty boring walking in circles around the parking lot so I added the drive.  That didn't help much!  Now, I just hope I can move tomorrow!