I'm a day late and a dollar short on my final report on being a vegan, but hey, life got in the way. First let me say that I and my true love, butter, have been happily reunited for a week now and I am so glad i can cook with something besides canola oil.
I can say that I survived 23.25 days more or less as a vegan.
So on to the questions
1. Did I lose any weight? Nope I stayed exactly the same not an ounce lost nor gained thus proving that a vegan diet is not a diet per se but more of a lifestyle choice.
2. Did I cheat - Yes I did. I admitted to eating French toast at Denny's and my downfall seems to be chocolate. I had a couple of pieces of Halloween candy and a slice of chocolate cream pie but overall I did try to stay true to the vegan food principles.
3. Was it easy? If the definition of easy is convenient then nope it wasn't. I was able to find a limited number of convenience foods as well as the usual suspects e.g. veggies, fruits, soy etc. at the mainstream grocery stores so kudos for them. Eating at a restaurant, not surprisingly, was much harder. Vegetarian choices seem to be pretty prevalent but not vegan. The one restaurant where I asked for cheese to be removed from the veggie sandwich was accommodating and the Black Bear diner where I thought I'd find nothing vegan had a veggie burger but for the most part I avoided eating out as I knew the choices would be slim.
4. Do I feel better physically? No I don't and for the first few days I actually felt pretty lousy as did the spouse. We both had stomach problems from the soy products and I had a headache for a good four days. I have to admit the headache is probably my fault. I suspect I simply needed to increase my water intake. My guess is that i was lacking due to no milk consumption.
5. Will I stick to a vegan diet - Heck no but I do plan on becoming more of a vegetarian eater again.
6. What was your first non-vegan meal? The spouse had suggested we go out to lunch on day 23 and I mentioned that I couldn’t as I had one more day of veganism to go but then he mentioned Baja Cactus and I caved. They have THE best enchiladas enmoldas so my firs ton vegan meal was chicken enchiladas and boy were they good.
Sunday, October 02, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Dennys you shouldn't have
Dear reader, I have a confession. I was tempted into sin by that bright red and yellow sign gleaming in the dark…let me tell you the story.
Long before I decided to try being a vegan for 25 days a girlfriend and I had planned on going to Yosemite in September. This past weekend she, my husband and I went up to Yosemite and had a fabulous time. The park was comparatively empty, the weather was cooperative and we generally just had a good time taking in the sights as we hiked through the park.
I had some worries that I might not find much to eat but was reassured when I took a look at the Ahwahnee hotels lunch menu. I had a perfectly nice roasted vegetable sandwich and the chef withheld the cheese normally added to the sandwich. We decided to not eat dinner in the park in order to give the driver sat least some daylight on the return trip. We left at 6:30 and at 8:00 p.m. we were all pretty hungry. We had passed through several small towns and finally in Oakdale we decided to stop. Since it was comparatively late in the evening and we were so famished we stopped at the first restaurant we spotted which happened to be Dennys. I knew that Dennys had recently gotten some bad press after having added some horrendously huge calorie laden items to their menu but I figured I’d be able to at least eat a salad. However, all the salads I saw on the menu had meat of some sort including those salads on their new fit fare menu. I could have probably asked that the meat items not be included but I was cranky and hungry, the waitress was tired and probably hungry so …I succumbed. I knew not to go whole hog as it were so I stuck to having 2 pieces of French toast. I have to confess it was pretty tasty too. I then went hell for broke and ordered a piece of French silk pie. The pie actually tasted pretty nasty to me so I stopped after a few bites.
I do know how I could have prevented my lapse into vegetarianism. I could have bought fruits, nuts etc with me so that I wouldn’t have gotten too hungry but I was afraid that while we were in the park a bear might take a liking to my snacks and either break into my car or, if I had the food on me, decide I was a tasty snack waiting to happen. So I left the foodstuffs at home. The other thing I could have done would have been to check out one of the many vegan websites to see what their recommendations were for eating vegan at Dennys. It turns out that there are vegan choices at Dennys including a true vegan burger as well as oatmeal, potatoes, bagels etc. However, because I was so hungry I let it get the better of me. I never saw those items on the menu but I bet they are on there. So lesson learned – either keep decent snacks with me or do better research next time.
Long before I decided to try being a vegan for 25 days a girlfriend and I had planned on going to Yosemite in September. This past weekend she, my husband and I went up to Yosemite and had a fabulous time. The park was comparatively empty, the weather was cooperative and we generally just had a good time taking in the sights as we hiked through the park.
I had some worries that I might not find much to eat but was reassured when I took a look at the Ahwahnee hotels lunch menu. I had a perfectly nice roasted vegetable sandwich and the chef withheld the cheese normally added to the sandwich. We decided to not eat dinner in the park in order to give the driver sat least some daylight on the return trip. We left at 6:30 and at 8:00 p.m. we were all pretty hungry. We had passed through several small towns and finally in Oakdale we decided to stop. Since it was comparatively late in the evening and we were so famished we stopped at the first restaurant we spotted which happened to be Dennys. I knew that Dennys had recently gotten some bad press after having added some horrendously huge calorie laden items to their menu but I figured I’d be able to at least eat a salad. However, all the salads I saw on the menu had meat of some sort including those salads on their new fit fare menu. I could have probably asked that the meat items not be included but I was cranky and hungry, the waitress was tired and probably hungry so …I succumbed. I knew not to go whole hog as it were so I stuck to having 2 pieces of French toast. I have to confess it was pretty tasty too. I then went hell for broke and ordered a piece of French silk pie. The pie actually tasted pretty nasty to me so I stopped after a few bites.
I do know how I could have prevented my lapse into vegetarianism. I could have bought fruits, nuts etc with me so that I wouldn’t have gotten too hungry but I was afraid that while we were in the park a bear might take a liking to my snacks and either break into my car or, if I had the food on me, decide I was a tasty snack waiting to happen. So I left the foodstuffs at home. The other thing I could have done would have been to check out one of the many vegan websites to see what their recommendations were for eating vegan at Dennys. It turns out that there are vegan choices at Dennys including a true vegan burger as well as oatmeal, potatoes, bagels etc. However, because I was so hungry I let it get the better of me. I never saw those items on the menu but I bet they are on there. So lesson learned – either keep decent snacks with me or do better research next time.
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Hubby lives - vegan for three days and counting
Both hubby and I have survived for three days on our new “regime.” It was a close call our first night when I made vegan migas (recipe to be found here if interests you http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/vegan_migas.html) but didn’t really follow the recipe closely enough and dang near burned out the back of my throat. A word of warning, the combination of adobo and Serrano peppers, not a good thing. It then continued to be touch and go when I turned to a frozen soy meat analog dish and himself mentioned that I was already eating meat. A little crochety from burning my throat out with the Serrano peppers I kept pointing at the box and shrieking “meatless, see right here it says meatless”. The downhill trend continued when he decided to consume peanut M&Ms in front of me. He, going the vegetarian route can have them but I can’t. Haven’t men learned by now that chocolate is sacred and should not be consumed lightly in front of those who can’t have it?
Both the hubby and I had a few misconceptions before I decided to follow the vegan lifestyle for 25 days so I’d like to address a few of them.
Going vegan is healthy –
Well, yes and no. Remember when I mentioned that Boulder potato chips were vegan? So is a lot of other junk food including some foods aimed directly at vegans. Tofurcky anyone? BTW, purely in the interests of science, I tried a whole foods vegan donut. It wasn’t bad but a bit oily, and definitely not healthy.
If one were to go on a low fat, unprocessed diet that is completely plant-based then, yes, vegan is healthy. One word of caution even here though. If you have a thyroid condition, some plant based elements (goitrogens) including soy and cruciferous vegetables are considered to be toxic to thyroid patients. Not all experts feel this is true but it is something to think about.
As long as you are not eating meat, dairy or eggs you are eating vegan, right?
I certainly thought so and was surprised to learn that many vegans also don’t use honey. Planet Green has a good explanation here http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/reason-vegans-honey.html. I was also surprised when I started reading labels how many otherwise “healthy” foods use honey. So far I’ve yet to find a non pumpernickel bread I can eat. Fortunately Thomas New York style bagels are vegan so I’ll use them for a snack. As an aside, pumpernickel bread, which I love, is very hard to find here in California. I’ve only ever found cocktail sized pumpernickel. Other ingredients I now need to look for on labels are casein and whey which are milk by-products (duh, curds and whey)
Eating Vegan is boring
Okay, I’m not going to lie, for me it probably is going to be boring. Remember I don’t really like a lot of fruits and veg but for those people with more enlightened palates there are tons of recipes out there and if you actually follow the instructions a lot of them look pretty darn good. The internet as a tool offers no excuses for boring. There are tons of recipe sites on the web along with many vegan organizations willing to answer questions so you should be able to eat meals with lots of variety.
Both the hubby and I had a few misconceptions before I decided to follow the vegan lifestyle for 25 days so I’d like to address a few of them.
Going vegan is healthy –
Well, yes and no. Remember when I mentioned that Boulder potato chips were vegan? So is a lot of other junk food including some foods aimed directly at vegans. Tofurcky anyone? BTW, purely in the interests of science, I tried a whole foods vegan donut. It wasn’t bad but a bit oily, and definitely not healthy.
If one were to go on a low fat, unprocessed diet that is completely plant-based then, yes, vegan is healthy. One word of caution even here though. If you have a thyroid condition, some plant based elements (goitrogens) including soy and cruciferous vegetables are considered to be toxic to thyroid patients. Not all experts feel this is true but it is something to think about.
As long as you are not eating meat, dairy or eggs you are eating vegan, right?
I certainly thought so and was surprised to learn that many vegans also don’t use honey. Planet Green has a good explanation here http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/reason-vegans-honey.html. I was also surprised when I started reading labels how many otherwise “healthy” foods use honey. So far I’ve yet to find a non pumpernickel bread I can eat. Fortunately Thomas New York style bagels are vegan so I’ll use them for a snack. As an aside, pumpernickel bread, which I love, is very hard to find here in California. I’ve only ever found cocktail sized pumpernickel. Other ingredients I now need to look for on labels are casein and whey which are milk by-products (duh, curds and whey)
Eating Vegan is boring
Okay, I’m not going to lie, for me it probably is going to be boring. Remember I don’t really like a lot of fruits and veg but for those people with more enlightened palates there are tons of recipes out there and if you actually follow the instructions a lot of them look pretty darn good. The internet as a tool offers no excuses for boring. There are tons of recipe sites on the web along with many vegan organizations willing to answer questions so you should be able to eat meals with lots of variety.
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Vegan for 25 days
Can a girl who hates fruits and vegetables become vegan for 25 days? Can her spouse survive?
On a lark I’ve decided to try and find out. After all, if former President Clinton, “Mr Fried Foods” can do it then I figure so can I. After all I did become a vegetarian for a year and a half and did pretty well, though I must confess the occasional hamburger was eaten during that time.
I’m curious to see how easy it really is to go vegan. I have no desire to permanently go vegan but all the vegan converts keep talking about how easy it is. However, these same people seem to be well… zealots. I’ve not really heard from the perspective of “I’m an ordinary Joe and yes it really is easy, or no it’s not all that easy and here are the problems” point of view. I hope to represent that point of view.
My ground rules are that from Sept.1 – Sept 25th
1. I’ll not eat the obvious: no meat, no dairy, no eggs, no honey. I will miss you butter…
2. I’ve got to eat like I normally eat, i.e. I use a lot of convenience foods during the week and cook on the weekends. Also vegan does not necessarily mean no junk food. Guess what? Boulder potato chips =vegan. Just sayin’
3. If I go to a restaurant I can’t cheat and eat meat just because I don’t see anything I like on the menu. However, I am also not going to interrogate the staff to determine if my tofu was fried on a grill separate from meat products either. I’m trying this as a possible life style choice and not a religious conversion type of thing.
I’m lucky that I live in the Bay Area. We seem to have, at least, a lot of vegetarian choices on the restaurant menus as well as several stores in the area that have a good selection of vegan frozen foods. In other words, even I may be fairly successful at going vegan.
There are also several websites that should help me in my quest such as http://www.isitvegan.com; eatingwell.com and PETAs website.
For those of you concerned about the spouse, he is not going vegan but he has been “strongly” encouraged to go vegetarian for the 25 days. After all eating a nice juicy steak in front of me could be hazardous to his health.
Finally, you may ask “why only 25 days” and not the widely promoted vegan for 30 days? The answer is that realistically I don’t think I can sustain being vegan after Sept 25th. ON Sept.26th I start my usual training regime for student library clerks and the days tend to be very long. Meals are generally taken in a haphazard fashion and I don’t want to faint in front of a freshman because I haven’t eaten in 12 hours. That tends to scare them.
Wish me luck….
On a lark I’ve decided to try and find out. After all, if former President Clinton, “Mr Fried Foods” can do it then I figure so can I. After all I did become a vegetarian for a year and a half and did pretty well, though I must confess the occasional hamburger was eaten during that time.
I’m curious to see how easy it really is to go vegan. I have no desire to permanently go vegan but all the vegan converts keep talking about how easy it is. However, these same people seem to be well… zealots. I’ve not really heard from the perspective of “I’m an ordinary Joe and yes it really is easy, or no it’s not all that easy and here are the problems” point of view. I hope to represent that point of view.
My ground rules are that from Sept.1 – Sept 25th
1. I’ll not eat the obvious: no meat, no dairy, no eggs, no honey. I will miss you butter…
2. I’ve got to eat like I normally eat, i.e. I use a lot of convenience foods during the week and cook on the weekends. Also vegan does not necessarily mean no junk food. Guess what? Boulder potato chips =vegan. Just sayin’
3. If I go to a restaurant I can’t cheat and eat meat just because I don’t see anything I like on the menu. However, I am also not going to interrogate the staff to determine if my tofu was fried on a grill separate from meat products either. I’m trying this as a possible life style choice and not a religious conversion type of thing.
I’m lucky that I live in the Bay Area. We seem to have, at least, a lot of vegetarian choices on the restaurant menus as well as several stores in the area that have a good selection of vegan frozen foods. In other words, even I may be fairly successful at going vegan.
There are also several websites that should help me in my quest such as http://www.isitvegan.com; eatingwell.com and PETAs website.
For those of you concerned about the spouse, he is not going vegan but he has been “strongly” encouraged to go vegetarian for the 25 days. After all eating a nice juicy steak in front of me could be hazardous to his health.
Finally, you may ask “why only 25 days” and not the widely promoted vegan for 30 days? The answer is that realistically I don’t think I can sustain being vegan after Sept 25th. ON Sept.26th I start my usual training regime for student library clerks and the days tend to be very long. Meals are generally taken in a haphazard fashion and I don’t want to faint in front of a freshman because I haven’t eaten in 12 hours. That tends to scare them.
Wish me luck….
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Garden dreaming
My husband, mother in law, a friend and I all went to view a garden of a local artist/gardener in Berkeley a couple of weeks ago. I’d seen this woman’s work at the San Francisco home and garden show and had perused a couple of her books. I knew I’d be seeing lots of color as well as fanciful statuary but seeing them “in the flesh” is a whole different experience. Keeyla Meadows truly has not met a color she doesn’t like but more importantly she makes effective use of these colors. I also love her use of art work as well as a variety of different materials she uses in pavings and planting structures. She has a web site and if you love color check it out here http://www.keeylameadows.net/home/home.html
Her color suggestions are very similar to those used by various quilt instructors over the years. Alas do I ever follow these principles? The short answer is no. If I try to combine several different colors my garden tends to look, at best, disordered and, at worst, muddy. However, I’ve become so enamored of her style that I’ve decided to totally redo my back garden in the hopes that I might obtain a pale version of hers. Regretfully for the spouse this means lots of physical labor. Last weekend we started looking for boulders and found some. My husband’s valiant little four cylinder Nissan hauled the rocks home. Himself, with the help of a hoist, got the rocks off the truck and in the back yard in the approximate position that the rocks will ultimately go. Did I metnion that he moved over a ton (literally) of rock?
This past weekend I then got it into my head that we needed to amend our very clay like soil. Keeyla also has a recipe for “good soil” so we set off on a quest for the various ingredients. We discovered that commercial establishments such as Summer winds and Home Depot do not carry “loamy sand” 5/16”” lava and rock nor do they know what rice hulls are much less were to purchase them. It has finally warmed up in California so driving around in the truck looking for these things got a little “heated”. One lady in Osh was pretty sure the spouse was in trouble but I can assure her we were simply discussing types of sand. After a very hot 2 hours in the truck we came home disheartened. I, information specialist that I am, then turned to the internet. We have discovered where most of our ingredients are and next weekend I hope to obtain them. Stay tuned….
Saturday, June 04, 2011
By Jove, I think she's got it.
By Jove I think I’ve got it.
I hate machine piecing or at least I did. I was always afraid that I was going to make too many mistakes and in the process ruin perfectly wonderful fabric. For years a friend has been trying to convert me to the dark side and even helped me make a lap quilt with really large half square triangles. This made me just comfortable enough that I thought I’d take a sampler class at my local quilt shop. After all, I knew that with my growing fabric hoard I had to start doing at least some quilts by machine or I, the cats and quite possibly the hubby would be swallowed whole. I don’t think the hubby would notice as he’d be too intent on his computer screen, but still..
The sampler class caused a resurfacing of all those fears I’d initially had and gone was the comfort level I’d obtained with the lap quilt my friend had helped me with. I became obsessed with that quarter inch seam and whether my 12 inch blocks would ever square up. I’d burst into tears and shriek at the hubby (who did notice) and really began to hate one of my favorite hobbies. I finished the class, finished my quilt and am happy to say it looks pretty good. I decided to persevere and try another quilt but on my own so I signed up for a block of the month type of deal and found that, as the months went on, I began to feel comfortable again. Yes, there are definite mistakes in the first three blocks but nothing that can’t be “repaired” with either a little extra strip of fabric or some carefully placed borderie perse. Some of my blocks now even fit the required 12 ½ inches and can be squared up. I feel like an absolute wiz with snowball/flying geese type units. While I can’t say that I’m having fun yet I have begun to enjoy the machine piecing process just a little. I’ve got three more blocks to go along with sashing so keep your fingers crossed for me. Amazingly I’ve started thinking about my next couple of quilts and, yes, I’ll be doing them by machine.
I will never be a total convert as evidenced by the fact that I’ve got several hand piecing projects in process but I can definitely see doing more and more quilts by machine! My friend will be so proud.
Postscript – after writing this I worked on block no.10 and 11. Block no.10 came together perfectly – block no.11, not so much. I was off by a whole quarter on one edge. I have no ruddy idea why as I worked on the blocks together, overly cocky maybe? Instead of ripping my hair out, I simply added a strip to the bottom. It ain’t pretty but it is a solution. Fingers crossed that block no. 12 comes together.
You can see from my early blocks that there are some boo boos but none too horribly bad.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Speculative fiction Reading challenge
I've just discovered that there is a speculative reading challenge for 2011 going on. It sounds like fun and since horror counts I think I might try it out. Since I've already forced a friend of mine to engage in a science fiction book reading club this might tie in nicely to what we are already doing as well. She won't read horror but is trying to turn me onto Iain Banks so I'll tr yin turn to get her to try the challenge.
It shouldn't be too hard to read 12 spec. fiction novels even this late in the game.
So let the fun begin....
Should you wish to join in follow the link below
"http://floor-to-ceiling-books.blogspot.com/2010/12/sign-up-speculative-fiction-reading.html"
So late May, early June is off to a good start
1. Blood Groove - technically a reread from 2009 but since I didn't remember it, it counts.
2. Zoo City - Lauren Beukes
3. The businessman - Thomas Disch
4. Embers - Laura Bickle
5. Ring of Solomon - Jonathan Stroud
6. Hull zero three - Greg Bear
7. one hundred thousand kingdoms - N.K. Jemisin
8. Midnight Riot Ben Aaronovitch
9. Amulet of Samarkand - Jonathan Stroud
10. Consider Phelbas - Iain M. Banks
11. Red pyramid = Rick Riordan
12. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
13. Monstrumologist - Rick Yancey
14. Knife of never letting go - Patrick Ness
15. Outback stars - Sandra McDonald
16. Blood red road - Moira Young
17. Small gods - Terry Pratchett
18. When she woke - Hillary Jordan
It shouldn't be too hard to read 12 spec. fiction novels even this late in the game.
So let the fun begin....
Should you wish to join in follow the link below
"http://floor-to-ceiling-books.blogspot.com/2010/12/sign-up-speculative-fiction-reading.html"
So late May, early June is off to a good start
1. Blood Groove - technically a reread from 2009 but since I didn't remember it, it counts.
2. Zoo City - Lauren Beukes
3. The businessman - Thomas Disch
4. Embers - Laura Bickle
5. Ring of Solomon - Jonathan Stroud
6. Hull zero three - Greg Bear
7. one hundred thousand kingdoms - N.K. Jemisin
8. Midnight Riot Ben Aaronovitch
9. Amulet of Samarkand - Jonathan Stroud
10. Consider Phelbas - Iain M. Banks
11. Red pyramid = Rick Riordan
12. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
13. Monstrumologist - Rick Yancey
14. Knife of never letting go - Patrick Ness
15. Outback stars - Sandra McDonald
16. Blood red road - Moira Young
17. Small gods - Terry Pratchett
18. When she woke - Hillary Jordan
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Eye of the beholder
This may at first appear to be a slightly schizophrenic post about both weight/appearance and quilts but bear with me.
Two things happened almost within hours the other day and while not earth shattering it made me think, once again, about people’s perceptions. I and my middle aged exercise partners were walking toward the gym when two young, slender younger women walked past and I heard the inevitable “I’m so fat” comment. Instead of making me grit my teeth as these comments sometimes do I had a little laugh.
I had spoken with a good friend of mine the weekend before and we spoke of our perceptions of ourselves. She sees herself as a willowy tall blonde, I see myself as an elven flower child type. She’s’ got the tall but not willowy part down and I’ve got the short but not particularly elven part down yet both of us are pretty happy most of the time with how we look. As my friend and I age we become more and more optimistic about our looks. Maybe those young girls will too.
One thing that does make me angry though is when someone else looks at me and decides that because I’m short and stocky that I’m not very fit. I know how much time I invest in exercising and it’s not insubstantial so I tend to be a bit techy when someone looks at me and says something along the lines of “oh I don’t really think you should sign up for that ten mile hike” or “do you REALLY bike 12 miles a day?” Yep I do, don’t judge this book by its cover is my usual response.
After I left the gym I then went on to do some quilting with a couple of other people and, in this case, we quilters became the equivalent of those younger women. You should have heard us – “my applique isn’t looking very good, I messed up with the colors in this section….”So why are we so critical of our quilts? Come on, you know you’ve looked at a minute section of your quilt and been overly sensitive that a seam doesn’t match exactly, or your quilt stitched look too big or…? I ask, why can’t I and my quilty friends take the optimists view and love our quilts as is, perceived flaws and all?
Furthermore we also tend to be pretty judgmental of others work, especially at quilt shows. Do we really need to be that catty about someone else’s quilt? Just as I’ve worked hard to achieve a certain fitness level so, I suspect, have these women (and men) worked hard on their work. Maybe we should remember that next time instead of the fact that the quilt isn’t our cup of tea. Let’s be optimists and kinder individuals instead of negative nellies shall we?
Two things happened almost within hours the other day and while not earth shattering it made me think, once again, about people’s perceptions. I and my middle aged exercise partners were walking toward the gym when two young, slender younger women walked past and I heard the inevitable “I’m so fat” comment. Instead of making me grit my teeth as these comments sometimes do I had a little laugh.
I had spoken with a good friend of mine the weekend before and we spoke of our perceptions of ourselves. She sees herself as a willowy tall blonde, I see myself as an elven flower child type. She’s’ got the tall but not willowy part down and I’ve got the short but not particularly elven part down yet both of us are pretty happy most of the time with how we look. As my friend and I age we become more and more optimistic about our looks. Maybe those young girls will too.
One thing that does make me angry though is when someone else looks at me and decides that because I’m short and stocky that I’m not very fit. I know how much time I invest in exercising and it’s not insubstantial so I tend to be a bit techy when someone looks at me and says something along the lines of “oh I don’t really think you should sign up for that ten mile hike” or “do you REALLY bike 12 miles a day?” Yep I do, don’t judge this book by its cover is my usual response.
After I left the gym I then went on to do some quilting with a couple of other people and, in this case, we quilters became the equivalent of those younger women. You should have heard us – “my applique isn’t looking very good, I messed up with the colors in this section….”So why are we so critical of our quilts? Come on, you know you’ve looked at a minute section of your quilt and been overly sensitive that a seam doesn’t match exactly, or your quilt stitched look too big or…? I ask, why can’t I and my quilty friends take the optimists view and love our quilts as is, perceived flaws and all?
Furthermore we also tend to be pretty judgmental of others work, especially at quilt shows. Do we really need to be that catty about someone else’s quilt? Just as I’ve worked hard to achieve a certain fitness level so, I suspect, have these women (and men) worked hard on their work. Maybe we should remember that next time instead of the fact that the quilt isn’t our cup of tea. Let’s be optimists and kinder individuals instead of negative nellies shall we?
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Fitness for quilters … and all you other needlers too
Spring is afoot, though she does seem to be limping slightly, so it is time to turn our thoughts away from our machines and to think about ridding ourselves of our winter “ahem” stores.
There are many reasons why we should push ourselves away from the sewing table, to drop our knitting needles, shed our shuttles.
Perhaps the primary reason is that a healthy crafter is a productive crafter, that and I really don’t want my north forty to gain any more acreage if you know what I mean.
Exercise does more for us than just make us healthy though. It can energize us, it can inspire us. Just imagine what a half an hour’s walk can do for you. You might spot that perfect color to add to your quilt or see a heron take flight and envision creating that landscape quilt or tapestry.
If you walk with a friend you can brainstorm possible future projects and really get your blood pumping.
Stepping back from our machines also allows us to step back and remember that life is out there. The quilt police aren’t going to break down your door if you don’t get that last square done but go out and run with the dog instead. The knitting Nazis aren’t going to haul you off if you’ve only done three inches of knitting and then decide to go outside and weed the garden.
Our backs will also thank us if we stop every 20 – 30 minutes and get up and stretch, do squats ,what have you. The thing is if you step away for awhile, you may find that when you come back you have more energy, and to be quite frank , a little more joy when you resume your project. If you are like me, sometimes I begin to view my craft as just another chore…I’ve got to get three more squares done, 2 more quilts done by…type of mentality instead of just enjoying myself. If I just stop for a while and go out and bike around the neighborhood I feel much better and I start to have fun with my quilting again. It’s amazing what an effusion of oxygen will do for the brain!
So, I say to you, my breather. When the sun does finally come out in your neck of the woods, go out and enjoy it. Your fabric, yarn etc. will wait for you.
There are many reasons why we should push ourselves away from the sewing table, to drop our knitting needles, shed our shuttles.
Perhaps the primary reason is that a healthy crafter is a productive crafter, that and I really don’t want my north forty to gain any more acreage if you know what I mean.
Exercise does more for us than just make us healthy though. It can energize us, it can inspire us. Just imagine what a half an hour’s walk can do for you. You might spot that perfect color to add to your quilt or see a heron take flight and envision creating that landscape quilt or tapestry.
If you walk with a friend you can brainstorm possible future projects and really get your blood pumping.
Stepping back from our machines also allows us to step back and remember that life is out there. The quilt police aren’t going to break down your door if you don’t get that last square done but go out and run with the dog instead. The knitting Nazis aren’t going to haul you off if you’ve only done three inches of knitting and then decide to go outside and weed the garden.
Our backs will also thank us if we stop every 20 – 30 minutes and get up and stretch, do squats ,what have you. The thing is if you step away for awhile, you may find that when you come back you have more energy, and to be quite frank , a little more joy when you resume your project. If you are like me, sometimes I begin to view my craft as just another chore…I’ve got to get three more squares done, 2 more quilts done by…type of mentality instead of just enjoying myself. If I just stop for a while and go out and bike around the neighborhood I feel much better and I start to have fun with my quilting again. It’s amazing what an effusion of oxygen will do for the brain!
So, I say to you, my breather. When the sun does finally come out in your neck of the woods, go out and enjoy it. Your fabric, yarn etc. will wait for you.
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