A lot has happened since my last post about my personal weight loss efforts. I am now 55% of the way to my goal of losing 100 pounds. That’s right, I have lost 55 pounds! A lot of people have asked me how I did it, so I would like to share that with you. I am hesitant to say how I lost weight because I strongly believe that losing weight is a personal thing. I...

I have been working on getting my body healthy and losing weight for the past 10 months or so. So far, I have lost 30 pounds. The first 20 came off over the summer last year, but then I hit some major emotional road blocks and it was all I could do to keep from gaining any back. Then, came the holidays, during which I gained back 10 pounds, but I lost that by...

In two weeks, I start classes to become a certified personal coach! I am very excited about this new chapter of my life. I have been struggling to figure out what I want to do with myself and this is just perfect. It is something I can start while still at home with the kids, yet branch out once the kids are older. I have an overall plan of what kind of coaching I...

While I haven’t had much time for making things lately, I have to post something for Valentine’s Day. So let me share some of my past Valentine’s Day projects with you. I do have a couple of special things I will be doing this year, but by the time I post them, it will be too late for anyone to use them this year! For the soap-makers, here are two...

That was my motto this year. That’s not to say that I didn’t gain 10 pounds. I did. But here we are on February first and I have already lost it. Last year, I started eating better and I lost 20 pounds. Then the holidays came. I behaved pretty well over Thanksgiving, but I was hosting Christmas, which means I had leftovers. Which means, I ate Christmas...

In February of 2006, I started a blog called, “All Things Hold Together.” I used it to post about my life, homeschooling, being frugal, crafts and recipes, and my Christian faith. But then, after a while, I stopped posting about some of those things. I started a different blog for homeschool posts. I stopped being so obsessively frugal. I also stopped...

This is my favorite technique for swirling melt and pour soap because it doesn’t have a lot of steps, but it makes a very fancy looking bar of soap. I am going to give a general explanation of my method, rather than precise measurements, because there are a few variables. For this you will need a loaf mold of any size. You can use an actual soap mold, or even...

Sorry that I haven’t posted in almost two weeks! Frankly, I am trying to decide what to do with my blogs – which ones to keep, which ones to stop, how often to post. I probably just should have posted that I was taking a short break, but I wasn’t really planning on taking a break; I just haven’t had the time to think! For whatever reason, our...

If you are like me, you have a lot of left-over Christmas ham.  What to do, what to do? I already made Split Pea Soup, using my leftover ham and the celery and carrots from the veggie platter.  But, I still had a lot of ham left, so I made a macaroni and cheese casserole, which also used up the leftover broccoli I had from the veggie platter. I have always hated...

Today, I made some sugar cookies using those classic green and red sugars to round out my Christmas dessert table. I experimented with a few different methods for affixing the sprinkles. Here is the one that I thought worked best to achieve the look I wanted. Holiday Sugar Cookies 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 3/4 cups...