I just moved this blog to WordPress today.  I was on Typepad.  Before that I was on Blogger.  Can’t seem to get comfortable anywhere.

Everyone raves about WordPress so I’m giving it a try (again).  Typepad was okay but their compose window is not robust enough for me.

Excuse my dust while I try to get settled here.  I can see some pictures didn’t import as well as some sidebar stuff so it’ll be a bit before things look like home.

In the meantime, keep checking out my other blog, 40 and Fierce.

Would help if I included the picture.

Forgot to send this with previous post. Still learning mobile blogging.

I am traveling to Syosset, Long Island today by way of NY via Amtrak. I always enjoy taking the train, even more so these days. Since the airlines can’t get it together and all the weird air incidents we’ve been having lately, the train is a relatively painless way to travel. I only wish our country would invest in rail travel as they have done in Europe.

I generally hate business travel mostly because I equate travel with fun and work with tedium. (Is that a word?) I’m going on a video shoot, the first one in my new job and evidently not my last. We’re doing a lot if video production and that will require a lot of travel.
They didn’t tell me this when I signed up for this gig. I’m a little annoyed by that. It’s like if I revealed something to them months later that if they knew in advance, wouldve prevented them from hiring me. Oh well. Can’t really complainas there are people out there who don’t have a job to complain about.

This weekend will be the first in weeks where I don’t have to be somewhere. I will do some serious scrapbooking. Hubby will be out of town so I can make it a All-Crafts-All-the-Time marathon!

I could drive up to CKC-Valley Forge for the day. Dangerous…

cross-posted to 40 and Fierce

I’ve been contemplating a new look for quite some time. It’s all
part of the 40F strategy, you know. Sometimes it’s a small thing like a
new lipstick or a new top that will add some kick to your step. Other
times, it’s something more radical, like a bold haircut.

Saturday I lopped off my hair and it felt good. My hair has been
long for a long time. The last time it was short was like the early
90s. I kept it that way for years until I got bored and let it grow out.

Unfortunately, my hair has been through some stuff in the last year.
I colored it which I know fried it. Also the thyroid and high blood
pressure meds caused major shedding. Every time I combed my hair, it
would end up all over the bathroom floor. Made me wonder how I had any
hair left.

So I made the decision the cut it off. I figured it would
look and feel healthier. Also my long hair was blah and dragging my
face down.

So here I am…

I looked through many hair magazines for ideas but I found InStyle.com’s
Hollywood Hair Makeover was great for finding the best style for me.
You can upload your picture, select a style and make adjustments for
hair color, etc.  Somehow I ended up with a Keira Knightly ‘do.  I
printed out the look, took it with me to the hairdresser and she cut my
hair from the printout (with some adjustments).

Of course with a shorter style you have to learn how to do it
yourself.  My hairdresser recommended some products and after my
appointment, I went to a hair store and bought some pomade, styling
foam, a 1/2" flat iron and a silk wrap to keep my hair smooth while
sleeping.

I also got a mani/pedi and bought some makeup from the M.A.C. store.  All in all, it was a fruitful beauty-pampering day.

Cross-posted to 40 & Fierce

I need to stay on top of Web 2.0 trends for my job, so I read Mashable,
a social media news site.  To my delight, they did a post on 25+ Web Apps for Dieting and Getting Into Shape.  This post was right on time since I know that to be successful, I’ll need to keep a food diary.

I’ve done Weight Watchers
five times and the thing that always screwed me up was the POINTS
system and keeping track of them in a journal.  I didn’t do it most of
the time and it’s probably why I never did well on the program.
Constantly reading food labels, using the slider to convert everything
to POINTS and then writing it down in those little booklets they gave
you at your meetings got on my nerves.  I need something really simple
and easy to use.

As you can see from the upper-right corner, I decided (begrudgingly) on The Daily Plate (TDP).  It’s not a bad journal, per se, but their Web page layout is horrible.  I also tried MyCalorieCounter, DietTV and MyFoodDiary (you gotta pay to play on this one).

There are too many ads on MyCalorieCounter and I got too many error pages when I was surfing the site.

I
really liked the interface on DietTV.  It’s clean, it’s got nice
graphics and it’s easy to navigate.  Only problem is you have to follow
one of the diet plans they list.  That’s great if you want to use a
specific plan and they have 90 you can choose from.  I also like that
they let you track how much sleep you got because that’s an important,
yet overlooked, aspect of weight loss.  If I was on a specific plan, I
would definitely use them.

The charts on MyFoodDiary are
overwhelming.  After you enter your food for the day, it says, "If
every day were like today, you’d…" and they predicted I would gain 10
pounds by August.  But according to The Daily Plate, I’m on track.

I
have no idea who’s right, but for now, I’ll stick with TDP for a bit
and see how it goes.  They have free and Gold (paid) membership.  You
can try Gold for five days and I still can’t figure out why it’s better
than the free membership.  Gold gives you a cute weight tracker that
you can put on your blog that is supposed to work with Blogger, but
when I tried it, it didn’t show up in this space.  (Hey TDP, you may
wanna fix this).  So far I’m having a hard time trying to navigate the
site and that doesn’t bode well for me sticking with keeping a food
journal.  Good ol’ pen and paper may have to be the way to go.  We’ll
see.

Or maybe I’m just cranky and don’t feel like trying.  Whateverrrr!  I’m going through sugar withdrawl!

Today is the first day of the 40 & Fierce Campaign.  If you’re thinking about making a change, I hope you will join me on this journey.  We all need cheerleaders and weight loss is hard to do alone.  So come on board the Weight Loss Train and let’s do this!

As part of my program, I’m going to do a scrapbook
documenting this entire process.  To help me get started, I downloaded
a PDF of Simple Scrapbooks
Fast Album Formula (when you get to the site, look under Our
Team/Formula Worksheet).  Following the prompts on the sheet, I was
able to come up with the album design and scheme.

I used some 8×8 sketches from Page|Maps
that I thought would be easy to replicate.  This will save time trying
to figure out how to lay out the page and ensure that I complete one
each month.

I’m using Making Memories’ Noteworthy
line to keep notes on the process (get it?) and an 8×8 Noteworthy album
that I got at the Great American Scrapbook Convention.  I want the look
and feel to be as if I were doodling in a notebook and this is a great
collection to achieve that look.  I also wrestled with using a 12×12
album since all the papers are 12×12, but decided that 8×8 was better
and the album was just too cute not to use for this project.

After I assembled all my materials, I made a title page and the
first month’s layout.  My approach will be to make one layout per
month.  That layout will provide my starting weight and the month’s
observations, successes, stumbling blocks and next month’s goals.  Most
importantly, there will be a full body photo of myself <cringe>.
More on that later.

In the meantime, here’s my title page:

The journaling is taken from my blog post of the same title.

Ready to make your own scrapbook?  Just follow the formula, think
about what you want to document, come up with your design scheme,
gather your materials and go!  If you’d like to share your layouts, you
can include a link to your blog/Web site in the comments below.  Next
time I’ll show you my layout for July.

The lunch pail sold on eBay.  Methinks I may reconsider Etsy.

I’m doing a test.

I put up two items on eBay that are also posted on Etsy to see which will sell first.

On Etsy I’ve got tons of page views, but no buyers.

On eBay, I’ve got 1 watcher, no bids and four days left in the auction.

If you’re interested, it’s listed under ceedubdesigns.

I used to sell on eBay to pretty good success about two years ago.  Of course my items are about two years old (y-ancient in scrapbooking years).  But the products have never been used and are nice quality.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

On June 21, I turned 39.

On June 21, 2009, I will be 40.  I also aspire to be Fierce.

There’s something about approaching the second half of your life where you start doing some serious assessment about what you’ve been doing and what you need to/want to be doing.

I wrestled with career disillusionment for years until I finally said, "enough" and I made a change.

Now I need to do the next big thing and that’s lose the poundage.  Thanks to the natural process of aging (my doctor’s words) and my Hashimoto’s thyroid condition, I’m now 75 pounds overweight.  I absolutely cannot be 40 and a Fatty McPhatty.  It’s not acceptable.  And before all you folks out there write in and say I’m being a weightist, trust me, I’m not.  But being fat isn’t working for me anymore.

My blood pressure is high.
My face is bloated.
My clothes are tight.
I’m out of shape.
And I don’t want to shop at Lane Bryant anymore.

Being 40 & Fierce is more than an aesthetic thing.  I need to lose the weight so I can be in better health.  I haven’t been good at managing it and it’s time for change (I sound like Barack).  If I’m in better health, I’ll be stronger, not only physically, but mentally as well, and then who knows what I’ll be able to accomplish?

Monday, my husband and I will start Diet to Go and try it for a month. I’ve tried Weight Watchers (5 times), South Beach (some success) and countless other little diets.  I’m not good at counting Points or calories.  I need something simple and controlled which is why I’m hoping Diet to Go will help.  They make the food, I just eat it.  I know of one success story. If you know of others (or even failures), please share in the comments below.

Other things I’m doing: my job offers aerobics twice a week and I started last Tuesday.  I’m also going to walk during my lunch break (when it’s not hot and humid).  I did that today.

Lastly, I’m going to do a weight loss scrapbook.  I’ve got tons of supplies laying around so it shouldn’t be a big deal to cobble together a record of this journey I’m making.  Once a month, I’ll take a picture of myself and do a page about progress.  Notice I said "progress" and not successes/failures.  Even a failure is a success if I learn from it.  Ooh, watch out–I’m philosophizing!

Really, I need a new scrapbook project since Got Sketch 101 ended last week. Actually I just remembered I promised my mother I’d finish my father’s Army scrapbook by his birthday in November.  So now I have two projects to keep me busy!

Anyway, if anyone wants to join me on this journey (and you don’t have to be turning 40 to do it), please do so.  I’m going to set up an album and put my pages there.  You’re welcome to send in your own layouts of your weight loss/get healthy/whatever expedition and I will post them.  Or you give me a link to your site.  I will try to do a few posts about my program (look for "40 & Fierce" tag) and you can join in the discussion by posting comments in the comments section and we can commiserate about the lack of salt and sugar in our lives.  LOL.

It’s not going to easy, but I believe in and look forward to the rewards.