AfricanKelli

« Home

Finny and I have split up the booty (hee hee!) and are each announcing one of the winners of our In Stitches 2007 sew-along. Ms. Amy Butler, the sewing maven herself, perused our Flickr pool to select two grand prize winners. She emailed us how difficult it was! There were so many great submissions.

Jan’s patchwork bag blew us away. The sewing is great, the fabric selection is stellar and she just has such a friendly nature. Apparently she wowed Amy too because she is one of our grand prize winners.She is a sweetheart and her son is in the Peace Corps in Moldova — so their entire family has a special place in my heart. Congrats Jan! Amy is sending you loot! You’ll have to let us all know what you received, you lucky dog. (We’ve already sent them your mailing address. I hope you receive some of these awesome clothing patterns. I would truly love to make this. And this. And, yep, this too.)

The other great winner is being announced here — at Casa de Finny — along with the poll for next year’s project. If you want to play along, and we certainly hope you’ll fire up the Singers and join in the Kumbaya chorus around this crafty campfire, the time to vote is now!

As a reminder, we’re still working on our November/December project. Safe to say I’m ripping off this awesome idea. Meg is so darn crafty and the men in my life don’t read this blog. I’m pretty sure my dad still calls this my blob, actually. So, patchwork bags transformed into dopp kits it is. When we announce the winner(s) for this month’s entry, we’ll post our 2008 project too. Thanks again for playing along and man, I can’t wait to see what Amy sends our winners! Thanks to Amy and her awesome staff too for their generosity.

Cheers,
Kelli

P.S. If you didn’t win, and you are crying yourself to sleep on your big pillah, (name that movie!) check out Funky Finds this week for an awesome giveaway! Jess has some great stuff out there too.

I received a few more photos from my recent trip to Costa Rica this week, including our silly zip line shots:

Heaven.

You can’t hear me…

But everyone in our group was laughing their butts off because I screamed at the top of my lungs every single time…

I flew across the canopy. Dude! It was like, radical!

And kinda Darwinian. What’s up DNA buddy? (And wow am I glad I’m not a boy. Gulp.)

And two more kayak shots, just because they are on my computer and remind me of my happy place:

I hit the friend Powerball and I’m doing the ha ha happy dance.

~Kelli

I have long battled the want vs. need internal conversation, especially when it comes to food. I want a soy latte, I need a glass of water. I want a bagel, I need healthy protein. I want a 1/2 gallon of Dreyer’s Peppermint Ice Cream, I need to take a run.

The 5-6 small meals scheduled for this Body for Life plan leave me little time to think about the wants. I am getting plenty to eat, even though if I count up my calories, I am eating less than before. Huh. Maybe there is something to this? Perhaps all those before and after shots are real!

I’ve been cooking lots of chicken and veggies and fish and veggies and drinking an ocean’s worth of water — or so it seems. I’ve found a couple ingredients worth mentioning that seem to spice up this uber healthy cuisine:

Throw your veggies in a skillet and cover them with a bit of chicken broth. All the flavor, none of the fat.

And chili marinades are fantastic too. A coworker bought me this aji chili paste from Peru and it is out of this world. Spicy but with a smoky flavor. We ate a ton of yellow aji in Bolivia, so this was a treat to make at home. I’ve got to check out the international market for more choices.

The one downside with trying to eat healthy this time of year is that I’m baking like mad for a variety of celebrations. Today I am handing out sweet potato peanut butter cookies. I only ate one — a teeny one — and it was worth every calorie.

A Body for Life dessert?

Protein powder, flax seed, skim milk and ice — and it tasted considerably better than it looks.

This plan is going well so far. I’m pretty much always sore from lifting weights, but I am sleeping really well. I feel good and I’m guessing progress is being made. My body fat percentage test on Monday wasn’t nearly as dramatic as I thought it was going to be.
And I even managed to talk one of my girlfriends into doing this with me and she’s met me at the gym the last three mornings. It is so much more fun to workout when you have company.

~K

P.S. I draw the line at margaritas. When I splurge, I’m not going this route. Gimme triple sec in all its sugary glory with a scoop of Minute Maid limeade and Corona galore! See? Want vs. need… oy.

Dear Finny,
Long time, no chat about our happily successful sew-along. Can you believe we’ve received more than 300 submissions in the last 11 months? Even more incredible, can you believe Ms. Butler herself is reviewing these and picking two grand prize winners?
Holy moly. I just cannot get over this. And yes, I am fully aware what a dork it makes me when at happy hour someone asks me what the highlight of my week was and I head straight into, “Well, I’m in this sewing group and this super talented fabric and pattern designer actually emailed me! Can you believe it? Oh my gosh. And she is going to judge our little pool of photos…”
Such conversation, which ultimately always results in the person walking away, rolling his eyes or simply zoning out is man repellent, as my brother so aptly puts it. On the other hand, we have WWF, the latest Mac Leopard/Tiger/Liger details, or football stats. If I can listen to you explain yet again the difference between a linebacker and a tight-end, then you can at least pretend to be alive when I rarely ramble about all things domestic. At least my conversations come with baked goods.
Anyway, for all you In Stitches sew-alongers, I hope your November/December challenge is going well. I am busily sewing a dozen different Christmas gifts and while I’ve thought about what I am doing for this project, it has yet to move past my thoughts into a sketch.
Fin, how fun would it be to receive mail from Amy? I’m sure it would come with a pretty note on her new stationery. And the prize… one can only imagine. It is going to be so fun to announce the finalists and winners with you later this week!

Love,
Donk

P.S. For those interested in our 2008 sew-along project, now is the time to voice your vote. We are taking suggestions for the next book to conquer.

Hand-knit Advent Calendar, Country Living Magazine, December 2007

We celebrated the first Sunday of Advent this weekend at church by lighting the first purple candle in the Christmas wreath. It’s one of many traditions that I don’t realize I’m attached to until it is happening and I feel a sense of peace. Among the many other things I’m working on to become this better version of myself (Africankelli 2.0?), includes taking more time for my faith. It is fundamental to who I am and yet I always feel this nagging tug that I’m not giving it enough attention.
This holiday season, I’m going to focus doubly on spending time in prayer, meditation and thinking of Christ. For me, that is what Christmas should be about — even though I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a wee bit excited to cook, wrap, bake and enjoy a peppermint mocha or two.

I hope your holiday season is off to a peaceful start too,
K

What I am looking at this morning, after a lovely week and a long, hard, beautiful rain yesterday:

This travel journal arrived from Tuesday; the handstitching and detail are unreal. I just love it! Thank you Tuesday! I can’t wait to plan a new trip (Cabo? Portland?) to record among these pages.

What I am selectively not looking at this weekend? The leaks in my roof that are dripping small pools of water around my house. Yep. Two weeks after getting my home repainted and the spackling fixed, apparently my roof wasn’t doing so well. Darn it!
Back to the holiday budget to make several edits — mainly in the “me” category. As in “two cute Gap tops for you, one for me!”
~K

Brown bag to be reused in the spirit of being green + international posting box. $37 for all countries, up to 20 pounds.

When Donna emailed in August asking if I’d be interested in a Secret Santa Swap, I thought, “Sure!” I didn’t have to mail anything until December and that seemed so far away. October was kinda busy. And then November rolled around and I got wrapped up in Urban Dares and ditching Ruby for a kayak. Even though Donna has got this international swap exceptionally organized and even kept us all up to date with postal delivery times around the world, I started sewing yesterday. It needed to be in the mail tomorrow.
Procrastination is how I roll.

I wanted this gift to be artsy, but also earthy. I took a well-loved handbag I had and added some pink and orange love, paired it with a sweet zippered pouch and stuffed that international postage box nearly to my 20 pound limit. My recipient will receive chocolate, yarn, a design book, a journal, an ink pen, a quilted pillow case and a lucky giraffe in addition to the purse.

Now, on to that holiday sewing I’ve been thinking about…
~K

Seems like the majority of us have issues with portion control and most don’t like to exercise. Thank you so much for your comments yesterday! I loved reading each perspective. It is comforting to know there are so many others who put a good bit of their daily thought into their well-being. It also sounds like we collectively need a huge dose of motivation and a giant kick in the ass.

I’ll certainly keep posting about Body for Life and my new little Everest. If anyone is interested in doing this together, Monday is my official day 1 of the 12 week cycle. I’ve already got a body-fat analysis appointment set at the gym. Oy vey. How’s that for a great Monday morning?

On to more positive health news — I ran across this in the NYT this morning (while sipping my protein shake):

“Sharp Drop in Deaths from Measles Reported”
Improved routine immunization programs and huge national drives to give children a second dose of the inexpensive measles vaccine have contributed to a stunning 91% reduction in measles mortality across Africa, with deaths plunging to 36,000 last year from 396,000 in 2000, the World Health Organization and UNICEF reported. Globally in that period, measles deaths fell 68% to 242,000.

Woo hoo! I’ll take positive global health news anyway I can take it. Now, the fact the callous editors of the NYT placed this little gem of a news brief across from a giant Harry Winston diamond add that read, “Who needs moderation?” is another story. Silver lining: hopefully the poor Africans who dug up that giant diamond got their measles vaccines and are alive and kicking today!

Cheers,
Kelli

Spicy tuna roll, diet coke, pool-side chaise and I’m in carb heaven.

I’ve recently started a new weight-lifting routine. I’m hesitant to even talk about it here because I seem to bore everyone in my personal life with nutrition/health/athletic blabbing. But, here’s the catch — I need the accountability. If I blog it, so be it.

I workout daily. I am one of those rare breeds that loves to exercise. Give me an hour of cardio first thing in the morning and I am a happy woman. I am not fast or particularly strong, but I am dedicated.

The trick now is to turn this dedication into motivation in the nutrition arena. While I don’t have a problem steering away from “bad foods” — I rarely eat junk and when I do, I make a point of selecting wisely (ice cream, chips and salsa) and truly enjoying it — I do have a problem of eating too much. My portion control is out of control. Why have the 1/2 cup suggested serving of organic, whole-wheat cereal when I can have 1/2 the sleeve? Seriously. I eat good-for-you foods, but eat way too much and the result is that I’ve goofed up my body’s hunger signals.

Processed beef and bikinis should never mix. But hey! We were on vacay!

Time for change! I recently picked up a copy of Body for Life. Have you heard of this? In a nutshell, it is a weight lifting/cardio/nutrition plan that promises to cut down your body fat and build lean muscle. It isn’t a diet — it is a way of changing your life. I’m only a couple days into this and I’m so far following it diligently. I like the small 5-6 meals per day and the extra protein is keeping me full. Plus, while the weight lifting has me achy, it is incredible to feel your body getting stronger. Or at least that is what I am trying to tell myself.

A couple of questions for you — please consider delurking:
- Do you work out regularly? Do you like it, or is it one more task?
- What are your nutrition and exercise habits?
- Is this topic so boring you can’t wait for a new knitting post? Ha!

The next time I’m on the beach? I won’t be hiding under a one-piece and a tank top. I also won’t be drinking soda and eating sushi. {Okay, maybe the sushi. It is vacation after all!}

~K

Green {cloudy green, but still}

Gray

Fuchsia

Mauve

Red

Peaches and cream

Cream

Burnt Sienna

Pink

Turquoise

Me? I’m tan. And a bit sunburned. And covered in red mosquito bites. But you can just color me happy.
~K