I'm contemplating. . .

going to a nutritional consultant. I want to do this right and I don't feel like I can coach myself armed only with the book Food and Mood. Tasha, you've been a great inspiration. Any tips you can provide to someone just starting the process would be helpful and appreciated.

I looked in the phone book last night and found 3 or 4 consultants in town. One in particular has a focus on a natural approach, which sounds right up my alley. I think I'm going to call them and get some more information. I hope to decide by the end of the month and get the healing underway. I'm just tired of feeling unhealthy and I want to start now so that I can live out the rest of my life the way I really want to.

I've been sort of preparing for this all week. I've been making detailed lists of things that have to be in order before I begin any changes to my routine (e.g. adding daily exercise to my life, changing my diet, etc.). Number one on that list is to get our house put back together. If I keep going on it, I should be done with all of that by the end of the weekend. Then next week I can focus on gathering information and getting other things to fall into place in my life before I add more to it.

I started too many projects at once and now none of them are moving forward. Well, actually, this week they're really starting to and I'm getting a lot done by just not thinking about it and moving forward according to plan. I'm taking a tally of everything I'm in the middle of and figuring out how I need to go about things to get them all completed. Anything I've started, I want to get done or at least make significant progress on before I start anything else. It's time to teach myself how to follow through a plan to fruition. Up until now, I've only been able to come up with the plan and maybe get it started. Motivation is the keyword here and I'm not going to find it anywhere but within myself.

Arwen's Dream gown

With all the talk on LR_Cos about how great of a beginner project it is, and my feeling that I need a nice elegant nightgown (and more sewing practice), I've decided to make the Dream gown.

I started the mockup on a whim last night and got the back panel done in about 20 minutes. Tonight I'll do the front and figure out how much fabric I'll need. Tomorrow is payday and therefore, I'll be ready to order what I think will wind up being 8 yds of the widest silk chiffon I can find (which looks like 54" at this point) and a jar each of periwinkle and lavender fiber reactive dyes (all from Dharma). Looks like it's going to cost me about $50 to recreate. Not bad for a super fancy silk nightgown (compare to Victoria's Secret or the like).

Since I'll be doing this relatively close to the original, I'm likely not going to share any pics of me in it. But I do plan on documenting my construction and sharing pics of it on my dress form at least. I'm hoping for this to be my first project to give me some content for my website (which is almost ready to be published, but I'm feeling silly with no content there worth publishing).

Other projects in the works:

• seemingly endless beading on wedding gown accessories (wedding gown to follow soon)


• a silk kimono-like shirt that I've been putting off


• and the Blood Red gown that I hope to be complete by Halloween or even by the end of September so that I can wear it to the opening of the LOTR exhibit in Indy

must. . . stay. . . motivated :P