Diet

My clothes are getting tight, it is time to do weight watchers and loose these 10 pounds that have crept up on me. Since I am under 150 pounds my points for the day are between 18-23. One of the most important steps
to this diet is writing everything down and measuring amounts. It also helps to have support. I lost 10 pounds before with them. I did go to their meetings. It is good to join and go for awhile just to learn how it works and get all the material or get it from someone that has it and can explain the program.

I like it because I can eat anything I want.

It is surprising how many people, in the USA, do not get enough vitamin D even in places like California. A blood test can show if you are not getting enough. Another item many people do not get enough of is protein, which is surprising.

How much protein you need.
1/4 to 1/2 gram times your body weight in pounds.

Read the following article which is where I found the information on protein. http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/sc/1005/sc1005-protein.html

How to make a wood jewelry pendant

Making pendants.
wood
bail
E6000 glue
neckace
art picture or paper
diamond glaze
modge podge or other glue to adhere paper to wood.

You can use many differnt designs and techniques to make these pendants. Most of mine are from prints I
have designed. I use photoshop to reduce them to the size I want, which is a little smaller than the pendant. They have been sprayed with Goldens archival sealer to keep the ink from bleeding. This will need to dry.
My circle flower is made by cutting paper pieces which are then glued to the background paper or to a painted surface.You can make your own paper or buy scrapbooking paper.

Wood-Luckily, my husband has the tools to cut my wood for me. These are a little over 1 inch.  They are much bigger than the scrabble pendants.  I plan on having those too.  Each piece of wood is sanded down and sealed before it is painted with acrylic.

Acrylic-I use the craft jars that most craft stores carry, such as Ceramcoat by Delta.

Use the modge podge to glue the picture to the wood or use any other glue you want to use. Let dry 10-20 minutes.

Place wax paper down to keep the diamond glaze from sticking. Do not shake the glaze. There are differnt techniques on using it. Some people place a glob in the center and pull it out.  Others make a rim around the wood and fill it in.  Bubbles can be pushed off to the side and wiped off or pop with a pin. You may decide to do a second layer the next day after the first layer dries.  After it dries,you can sand it with fine sandpaper if you need to.

I did finish the heart with diamond glaze but plan on using resin on the rest.

Glue-E6000 is widely used by jewelry makers.   Use this glue to add the bail to the top of the necklace. I will write more on resin in a future post.

I am taking some metal smithing classes.  There is an example in the photo of one of the pieces I made out of brass and copper. We are making a bird nest this weekend.

Exercise

Exercise! How to get motivated? I finally came up with something that works for me.  I have a great book I am reading.  I can only read it if I am on the exercise bike.  I plan on purchasing the other books by the

 author. This gives me the incentive to workout.  It is also important to keep your body guessing, and not do the same routine everyday.  I will work on that down the road.  For now the bike along with some physical therapy exercises will be a good start. My first goal is to do this 4 days a week for 3 months.  What motivates you to exercise?

Great Horned Owl

Cards are listed on Etsy.
They can be personlized and other card stock may be available, as is the case for most of my cards.
The Great Horned Owl is one of the most well know owls in the US. The name owl comes from the word “ule” which means to howl.  They are about 1.5 feet- 2 feet Females are larger than males Owls have acute
hearing and vision. They can blink but their eyes do not move around. In order to see moving objects an owl must move its entire head around to view it. Luckily they can move their head about ¾ of the way around on each side (which amounts to almost all the way around. They are very important in the control of rodents and insects.

Great horned Owl links

Video –nice video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJNRFxL3moM

Video-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzAfimDDfZI&feature=fvw

Audio of the sound that owls make http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Horned_Owl/sounds

General information about the great horned owl http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/birds/great_horned_owl.htm

For kids-coloring page of great horned owl http://www.kidzone.ws/geography/alberta/owl.htm

Craft projects of great horned owl for kids- http://www.daniellesplace.com/HTML/birdcrafts.html

Adopt an otter

Wild life adoption -donate and receive a cute plush animals and book  https://secure.defenders.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=wagc_seaotter

Note cards are listed on Etsy and can be personalized.
The adorable otter you saw in an earlier blog post is a southern/California sea otter that I drew. They are listed as threatened under the

turtle card personalized

Here is the turtle card that I designed.

Art picked for Treasury on Etsy

It was fun to have one of my pieces on a Treasury.  http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=110690