Thursday happenings!

I went for my 1.4 mile run yesterday morning. It was another nice morning to run. 

 We drove by this tricked out Halloween decorated house yesterday. Now that's going all out!

 Our front tree yesterday and today its completely golden yellow and red.

Lazy puppy in the window. Its her favorite nap spot! I need to recover that cushion! 

Fall time... colorful fall

I should have fall leaf photos for today, but I don't. I didn't take my cell phone on my run yesterday so I have zero colorful photos to share. What I do have, color changes for our fireplace and book shelves. Bye, bye golden maple, Hello White! 

Before..

In-progress.. First coat of primer paint. We are undecided if we should leave the inside of the book shelves natural maple for a contrast? Guess, we can always decide later to paint them.

I had all this stuff, photos, picture, junk on the book shelves. I can't believe how much we had up there that it filled the table! I didn't even clear out the bottom cabinets. I'm not putting it all back up. Time to change out stuff or leave it bare. They were just dust collectors and 18 years of dust!

I'm not ready to run this morning. I  tried putting on a happy face but...

I had some sad news yesterday. A good customer of mine passed away unexpectedly. I got to her house in the morning and found two police cars out front. I texted a reminder to her on Monday morning and never heard back which was unusual. Her daughter called last night to confirm that she had passed away. I really enjoyed talking with her. We had such great conversations. She will be missed.

Starting back at it SLOW

My door project is coming along. I sure don't miss those golden pine doors! Two coats of primer and soon on to the enamel. I still have touch up primer on some of the doors. Well, most and then I'm ready to move on to the final coats of paint. 

While waiting for the eye doctor with Steve yesterday morning, I found a recipe for my favorite corn salad. It's a little different then the one I have been making but it should be fun trying something a little different. 

I'm back at running outside. I don't care if my feet hurt in the mornings. They hurt any way. I'm going to get back to my six miles S L O W L Y. I did our path route that takes me up a big hill. I managed to run up it then needed about a 10 step walk after and then I ran the rest of the 1.5 miles to home. It felt hard and familiar all at the same time. I gave up running for too long. I'll ease back into it and get right back up there in miles. 

It's also time to lose weight. Never ending battle. I need to post what I eat to stay honest with myself.

Breakfast - 1 slice of whole grain bread with Peanut-butter (200 calories)
Noon - Soup veggie from a can (160)
oops Chocolate bread, two thin slices (300)
Evening- spaghetti squash with sauce and Parmesan cheese (300)
1 slice of french bread (150) w/ yogurt butter
Evening snack - 1 yogurt with frozen raspberries (100)
Banana (70)
Total calories ate: 1280

Exercise: Planks, weights and cleaned (300 burned calories)

I must admit, I really wanted sugar at 8pm. I was almost going to have a blow pop, but walked away. Evening is my want to eat time.

Weekend update with SNOW!

It snowed on Sunday morning. Glad that by the late afternoon it was all melted. I was not ready for this early snow. The leaves are still on the trees and have yet to all change colors. 

We did make the most out of it and made a tiny snowman on Celina's car.

I think its time to look for snow boots! 

Steve had another eye surgery last week on Tuesday. This one was to get more of the oil out of his eye. The oil from retina surgery had pooled in the whites of his eye under the lid. The eye is a bit of a sponge. The doctors had to make a few incisions and milk the oil out. They got all of about 5% which is good. We think this is the last surgery for the eye he will need. Fingers crossed we go back in today for a week check up on the right eye. If all goes well, more cornea stitches come out in November. This will improve his eye sight in that eye. Right now, he can see very close up and not so great at distance. As the stitches come out that should improve greatly! 

My home projects are coming along. I have one chair left to paint gray and re-cover. 

I didn't take a photo of the upstairs doors, but they are in the process of all being painted white. I have 11 doors. I'm on the 2nd coat of primer and will need to do some primer touch ups where I didn't want to paint the door knobs or wall. I had some taping to do and door knob removal. And nope, Steve has not finished painting the buffet or the fireplace. With all the eye surgery, it has slowed down his painting progress. 

I would love this built in our mud room. Right now we have hooks but no bench or storage area back in that area.

Time to get working on me again! Its concentrate on what I can eat, veggies and fruits. Eat less and drop some weight. It's time to get my weight down! I have been doing planks again and lifting weights. I stopped for the last week after I hurt my back and could hardly bend over. I was taking Advil and back pain pills so planks or weights were not happening. I feel good again so its back at it but taking it a bit easier and not doing side planks as I think that's what hurt my back! 

Mental Health time out!

I think its time to take a little mental health time out. It's probably best to turn off my phone at 2 today, stop watching news for a while and just stop listening to politics. Don't listen to negative people! Surround myself with like minded. I normally say diversity is good because you get a different perspective, but in the news these days, I'll stay with like minded because it's gotten like Biffs world or should I say Bart? Ugh!

Doing some things that make me happy... Planks every day = making me stronger and more tone.

Making cookies and sharing them with my customers. Love baking and it always gets me in a good mood. 

Finishing up my todo projects. Painted the last of the outdoor lights and then then go back on the house. 

My fingers hurt so much from the staple gun, I couldn't finish the last of 4 chairs I'm recovering. 

You can't really see the new seat cushions in the photo but they pretty much are the same color as the chair. Just keeping it all the same color and simple. I have changed them out many times before and I'm sure this won't be the last time.

Getting the RED OUT!

Our Red wall is gone! After picture of the silver bullet paint color. 

Before with the dark red wall, usually its really dark in this room and now its much brighter that its a light gray. The fireplace will be painted white! Its next after the buffet cabinet is painted. I'm also recovering the chair cushions. I found dark gray to match the chairs. I was going to do a different color for a contrast but wanted to keep it simple for now. Walmart actually had the cheapest fabric so I paid $30 for 5 yards of fabric, which should cover all the chairs.

I am liking the new house changes! We have more updates to do! I took down our painting on the wall. I still like one but will find another picture at some point. We also need a new rug to ground the table. I really like the idea of a white rug but I think that would be too dangerous under a table where wine or milk could get spilled. 

It was time to start a diet October 1st. I didn't do so great at night. It's always evening or late afternoon that I just cave. I have to figure out some strategies to get me though. I've tried popcorn, yoga and staying busy. It all helps some days and other days, I just want to eat and relax. I'll try again today at making good food choices.

I have one more before and after project I completed yesterday on our house. Outside 18 year year old lights. Instead of buying new, I just spray painted them. It was a pain getting off the rusted screws. I used some spray oil and let it sit for 10 minutes then used a wrench to get the screws off to take out all the glass. I cleaned up the glass, spray painted the metal and put it all back together. I forgot about one light out back so, I have more to do! 

 I think it turned out pretty good for a cheap fix. Not to put them back on the house by the garage doors.

Monday is a fun day!

I work later on this afternoon and a little this evening. It's kind of nice having a day where I have a really late start.

 I was in the baking mood yesterday and wanted to make something I have never baked before. Donut Crullers. I made one baked recipe, guess I should have just fried them up! The batter is pretty much the same is an eclair. I should have baked them a bit longer at the high temp before reducing the oven temp because they weren't crispy, kind of dough soggy. I tried to frost them with three types of variations, raspberry, chocolate and almond. They were just so so! I fed pretty much all to the birds this morning.

I still had fun making them and they did turn out pretty, exactly how they looked on the Pintrest recipe. I'm going to make some orange, crasin biscotti later on this morning.

Say goodbye to the red walls.. I have new paint, Silver Bullet, which is a Behr paint. It's a light gray so it will blend with all the other grays on the other walls in the entry and porch. Not to mention the gray table and kitchen island. We need to go light in this room due to the low lit lighting. It should brighten up the whole room. Steve is also going to work on the buffet, getting that all painted white. We have a few primer coat of paint, but need the doors, drawers primed and then we are ready to enamel. I'm excited for all our house changes! Feels great to have every thing freshen up around the house. I'm going to be spay painting the outside lights rubbed bronze, same color as all the door knobs. 

Working on me today too. Planks and then getting some exercise. It's diet day, 500 calories or less. Trying to get back to my 31 days of weight loss plan!