Quilted Pillow...Only Took a Year
I started this pillow a while back. I'm guessing about a year...actually, it's probably further back, but who's counting? Anyway, I made this out of some fabric samples I bought in a yard sale. You know those fabric books you flip through at carpet stores? My mother taught me at an early age to GRAB THEM WHEN YOU CAN. There are tons of projects you can do with them and the fabrics almost always coordinate with each other...so your possibilities become almost endless. I was at a yard sale one day and the lady was selling a few of these sample books and I jumped on them like a duck on a june bug. Ryan asked what I was going to do with them and I gave him my regular response, "I don't know. I'll figure it out later." One of the books was nothing but baby pastel colors. Can we say BEAUTIFUL? So...I cut out the pastels that were that matelasse fabric and some other fabrics that coordinated with the colors. At first I wasn't sure about mixing the fabric types, but in the end it came out pretty nice. I top stitched the edges to give it that quilted look. FYI: if you're doing this on a not-so-heavy-duty-machine, be careful. My smaller machine couldn't feed the fabric through easily so I switched to my Big Girl machine and she sewed through it like it was butter. So...one more project down, 28 to go. Although I'm guessing at that number, it's likely to be pretty close.
In other news, today I attended my first Zumba class. After 45 minutes of pitifully flailing my arms around, traveling around the world, and "shaking my rear", I called it quits and skipped out before they began the ab blast. Here's the quick story (not really).
For months now I've followed friends on Facebook talking about how much they love this Zumba class. I had no idea what it was, but I was interested. When I saw that our gym was offering a class and that the teacher was a lady that works down the hall from me, I decided to find out more. After talking to her and scheduling a pickup for Baby L, I headed to class. My coworker was out of town today and so a different lady was filling in for her.
Red flag.
I got there about five minutes late (my new normal) and missed the first portion of the warm up. After the warm up we started our "dancing". I'm using quotation marks because this was anything but dancing. See, I used to dance (back when my rear end actually fit in a leotard). Granted, I wasn't dancing Broadway nor was I being invited to be Cooper Nielson's principal dancer (if you know what I'm talking about, just smile for me), but I wasn't a complete slug in a pair of ballet shoes, either. I enjoyed dancing a lot. After I started working full time, it became too much and I had to give it up. But...I still love to listen to a good song and dance to it in my mind. Anyway, I thought that Zumba might possibly satisfy my dance tooth.
Wrong.
I'm not sure if it was the instructor's lack of ability to stay with the music (or if that's even the objective in the class), the lack of control of body parts, or just the simple fact that I'm not a ballerina anymore. No idea. What I do know is that this afternoon I witnessed a room of 14 women (myself included) make complete fools of themselves while listening to Latin music. From "shakin' it up" to "traveling around the world" to "shake your rears!", I cringed at the thought of what I was doing. I'm sorry, but bouncing in a circle while "pumping" my arms (read: flailing) is not fun. Shaking my rear (read: jiggly bits) is not my idea of a workout. Trying to keep up with an instructor that not only can't stay with the tempo of the music but continually speeds up faster and faster and faster and FASTER...just isn't my idea of a nice exercise class. At one point I looked around and noticed that NONE of the other participants were together. Not only were we not together, we looked like a room full of complete idiots.
And don't get me wrong, I've looked like a moron in exercise classes before. I once went an entire strength class with no water because I was afraid that my legs would go out if I bent over to pick up my water bottle. I once had to jump over people because the big bouncy ball fell out from between my feet and went bouncing, not only across the room, but OVER other participants. (That's a fun one to apologize for.) I'm often a clutz and I fully admit that. I often look like an idiot and I accept that it's a part of my life...a healthy one, in fact. I'm okay with that. As long as I'm enjoying it.
So...I'll probably find another class at the gym, but it won't be Zumba. And that's okay...I've got many outlets with which to look stupid.
For those of you who know me well, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Cheers!
In other news, today I attended my first Zumba class. After 45 minutes of pitifully flailing my arms around, traveling around the world, and "shaking my rear", I called it quits and skipped out before they began the ab blast. Here's the quick story (not really).
For months now I've followed friends on Facebook talking about how much they love this Zumba class. I had no idea what it was, but I was interested. When I saw that our gym was offering a class and that the teacher was a lady that works down the hall from me, I decided to find out more. After talking to her and scheduling a pickup for Baby L, I headed to class. My coworker was out of town today and so a different lady was filling in for her.
Red flag.
I got there about five minutes late (my new normal) and missed the first portion of the warm up. After the warm up we started our "dancing". I'm using quotation marks because this was anything but dancing. See, I used to dance (back when my rear end actually fit in a leotard). Granted, I wasn't dancing Broadway nor was I being invited to be Cooper Nielson's principal dancer (if you know what I'm talking about, just smile for me), but I wasn't a complete slug in a pair of ballet shoes, either. I enjoyed dancing a lot. After I started working full time, it became too much and I had to give it up. But...I still love to listen to a good song and dance to it in my mind. Anyway, I thought that Zumba might possibly satisfy my dance tooth.
Wrong.
I'm not sure if it was the instructor's lack of ability to stay with the music (or if that's even the objective in the class), the lack of control of body parts, or just the simple fact that I'm not a ballerina anymore. No idea. What I do know is that this afternoon I witnessed a room of 14 women (myself included) make complete fools of themselves while listening to Latin music. From "shakin' it up" to "traveling around the world" to "shake your rears!", I cringed at the thought of what I was doing. I'm sorry, but bouncing in a circle while "pumping" my arms (read: flailing) is not fun. Shaking my rear (read: jiggly bits) is not my idea of a workout. Trying to keep up with an instructor that not only can't stay with the tempo of the music but continually speeds up faster and faster and faster and FASTER...just isn't my idea of a nice exercise class. At one point I looked around and noticed that NONE of the other participants were together. Not only were we not together, we looked like a room full of complete idiots.
And don't get me wrong, I've looked like a moron in exercise classes before. I once went an entire strength class with no water because I was afraid that my legs would go out if I bent over to pick up my water bottle. I once had to jump over people because the big bouncy ball fell out from between my feet and went bouncing, not only across the room, but OVER other participants. (That's a fun one to apologize for.) I'm often a clutz and I fully admit that. I often look like an idiot and I accept that it's a part of my life...a healthy one, in fact. I'm okay with that. As long as I'm enjoying it.
So...I'll probably find another class at the gym, but it won't be Zumba. And that's okay...I've got many outlets with which to look stupid.
For those of you who know me well, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Cheers!
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