Been a busy couple of weeks

The past few weeks have been awfully busy here in Florida.  I have been baking and crafting with my sister.  We have many festivities at work for Halloween and there was a Halloween baby shower for my sister's sister-in-law this past week across the state.  At work there was even a baking contest/bake sale where I got first and third place in the tastiest category.  I made Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake in cupcakes and topped with my peanut butter buttercream which earned me first and then I made miniature versions of the pumpkin creme pies from Tasty Kitchen which earned third.  In addition to these I submitted peanut butter and jelly cupcakes.  On top of making these items for the bake off, I made a batch of the creme pies, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, as well as a six inch cake for the baby shower this weekend.  Once we returned to this coast on Sunday afternoon, I baked a quick red velvet cake to make a batch of cake balls and cup cake bites for two birthdays at work.  


As the world knows, Sunday was Halloween.  We got ready by buying candy and decking the dogs in their holiday gear.  Fame has a wonderful orange jester collar with jingle bells on the points.  Rudy dressed as a bucking bull, complete with a stuffed cowboy riding on his back holding on for dear life.  The only problem was that they did not get to show off their outfits to many people.  As a whole our neighborhood does not get that many trick-or-treater's but this year was especially slow.  I believe that we got 10 kids tops on our street.  We closed up shop by 8:30 and went in and enjoyed our evening  after a long weekend.  


There is not much else going on from here.  I am planning on spending this week doing laundry, cleaning out my DVR and spending time with my dog.  Since I have been so busy in the kitchen he hasn't gotten to spend much time with me and I can tell he misses playing around the house when I get home from work.  


Thanks for listening to me and I promise to be better about posting, this is all new to me.


Emmy

Check up

I had an appointment last Monday with my oncologist and was told that everything is still looking good, no biopsies and everything came back alright from the last ones.  He did mention that losing weight is going to help keep the cancer at bay and is probably to blame for it in the first place.  He mentioned that there might be some local exercise groups for cancer survivors that I may be able to join for little to no money.  I am hoping I can find one so that I can get some activity that isn't just me trying to do stuff on my own.  This was good news to follow a wonderful weekend at a craft show with my sister.

Stitch Rock rocked this weekend!  We had fun seeing all of the people and getting to shop around.  Jessi and I like these shows because at some of the bigger shows, we get to see the crafters we like being around but only see a couple times a year.  We have even gotten a little following of people in the area that show up to the shows just to buy some pickles or jam.  We bought art, got baby shower gifts, and had a blast.  There is not much more going on here.  I have just been working and starting to plan for bake off at work this Halloween.

This week I will be preparing a couple different desserts for a bake off for a picnic that my sister's department is throwing.  Any ideas of what I could make that will blow their socks off?

Signing off for now!

Emmy

ps-sorry it has been so long since my last post.

First show of the season

My week of peace and quiet was not so peaceful.  I spent my week driving my sister around and making things for work.  Nothing worked out as planned in regards to that part of the week.  This week has been spent prepping for my sister's first craft show of the season.  Tomorrow my brother-in-law, sister and I will be embarking in a 4 1/2 hour car ride to the other coast of Florida for Stitch Rock.  The car ride down the turnpike should be fun and enjoyable as we always have fun together.  I just feel sorry for my brother-in-law, he has to deal with my sister and me in a confined space for hours.  The two of us have a tendency to act a little weird when together for an amount of time, not to mention all of our inside jokes and crazy sister antics.  


I spent Monday and Tuesday cutting out 74 burp clothes out of flannel for my sister to sew so that we could sell them with the rest of our items.  I have spent the better part of my Thursday prepping by cleaning jars and putting fabric tops on them.  We have made in preparation for the crafting season 23 dozen jars of pickles, jams, apple butter, pickled okra and a few other items canned items.  We are hoping that this year rocks and that people come and have fun at the craft shoe.  Oh and this year, they have BBQ!  


That is all for now, I will post how the shoe goes later as that it what has been consuming my life this week.  


Thanks for stopping by!
Emmy


P.S.- If you are in the Delray Beach area on the 2nd, stop by Stitch Rock at Old School Square.  The doors are open 12-6pm.  


P.P.S.- the holidays are coming so skip the mall and buy homemade.

Peace and Quiet

To me there is nothing better than the occasional peace and quiet.  I love reflecting in quiet on my day.  In the evenings when I come home from work, I walk the dog and then love nothing more than to change into my comfy clothes and sit on the couch and read in complete silence for about 45 minutes.  This week I will not have anybody to come home to other than my animals and I couldn't be more happy.  My fur babies have been keeping me busy and entertained and showered in Love.  The best part of all is that they don't talk during the shows I like to watch on TV.


I am taking this time to start my diet so that I can loose the 50 lbs I pledged to drop by my next birthday.  I am have also started thinking about where I want to take my vacation.  I would love to go see snow as I have only seen it once in my life but I don't know about that.  I would also love to go to a small southern town.


Well that is all for now.  I am getting ready for the last walk of the evening and get some sleep for the busy week ahead.


Thanks for stopping by!
Emmy

Progress

As I sit here and think about what I have changed since I started I started this little experiment of mine.  I have only lost 2 lbs, but am formulating my game plan.  I have decided to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity so that I can do it on the weekends.  This weekend I will also be partaking in a Junior Achievement bowl-a-thon with some of my coworkers.  I have also pick a church to check out in my local area.  I have also started walking more with my dogs out in the neighborhood.  I sit here in my room with my dog on my lap excited for these changes.  I am hoping this will have a wonderful impact on my world and life.

Not much more to report on this end as there has not been much progress and there is not much new in my life that is exciting.

Thanks for stopping by!
Emmy and her dog Rudy

The fall means pickles!

I spend the better part of fall helping my sister with the craft shows that she signs up for.  Now these are not your grandmother's craft shows.  They are usually called Indie Craft shows and they are awesome (except for the few stinky hippies, which scare me a little).  The main thing that my sister started with and is still a big seller for her are her pickles.  We sell four different types of actual pickles along with some other pickled items and jams.  While my sister has branched out to other non edible items, it is the pickles that consume our time and keep the customers looking for us.  


I spent last saturday and today in our church's kitchen making pickles.  It has gotten to the point where pickles have officially started taking over at least half of our weekends.  Next weekend I will be spending my sunday in the church kitchen again canning more pickles and making jams.  The first weekend in October marks our first show of the season.  We will spend every weekend either selling our wears or making wears from now until the second weekend of December. 


I love making pickles and selling pickles with my sister as it allows me to get out of the house and spend time with my sister, who is my best friend.  This does pose a problem with my resolution to change things around by my 27th birthday.  I think it will throw a new dynamic into everything and make me focus a little more on what I truly want in life or it could send me into a tail spin.  Only time will tell.


Thanks for stopping by!


Emmy

Little known fact

Well since I am only two weeks into changing things, I have not accomplished much.  I have compiled a list local churches and have started looking into organizations that I want to volunteer with.  


Now onto a little known fact about me, unless you knew me in middle and or high school.


I was completely and utterly obsessed with pop music, more specifically boy bands.  I still retain a vast collection of random and obscure pop music, including many of my personal favorite, Nsync.  I will even break the CD's out occasionally and jam out in the car, as that is the best place for it.  Surprisingly, I still retain the song lyrics after all of these years.  During my high school years, I spent a small fortune on CD's 100's of them total, concerts $65+ for nose bleeds, movies, magazines, books, pictures and other random fan memorabilia.  Ok, now I have let you in on one of my little know secrets about me and I am starting to feel better having purged that information.  


I know it not something really big, but hey I just met you all and we are just starting to reveal things about each other.  Well I am signing off now, it is time to give myself a manicure and get some sleep for work in the morning.


Thanks for stopping by!
Emmy

The List

So as a part of my plan to change some things in my life by 27 I put together a list of goals.  Here is the list for the world to see.  I am hoping that this will help hold me accountable.


Here is the list in no particular order:
-Volunteer regularly
- Find a church that I like and go regularly
- Find things to do that make me happy
- Become more active
- Lose at least 50 pounds
- Look for somebody to share my life with
- Shop Less
- Save at least $1000
- Take a vacation




I am hoping that working on these items will assist in making big changes by my 27th Birthday.


Signing off for now
Emmy

A little about me

Hello my name is Emmy.  I am 26 and as the name of the blog suggests, I plan on changing some things about my life by the end of my 27th year on this earth.  I figured I would start a blog to keep track of what I would like to accomplish and what I have succeeded in accomplishing.

A little more about who I am and why I wish to do this.  On November 20, 2009 I was diagnosed with Endometrial Cancer at the ripe age of 25.  After some testing and a small procedure it was determined that my best course of action was a radical hysterectomy and was declared cancer free on February 22nd.  This changed my perspective of the world a little.  I am constantly trying to not let the little things get to me because in the long run, what does it really matter.  I gave myself until my 26th birthday to figure out what I wanted to do.  I thought of throwing a party to mark that I made it to another birthday, as many people don't when they start their cancer journey.  Then I thought about how that is completely not me.  I am a homebody.  I like to spend time at home with my family, my grandmother, mother, sister and brother-in-law as well as my friends when I can see them as they live all over.  I also like to spend time by myself.

I want this to be a positive place and a place for encouragement.  I want to be able to speak about the positives that are going on and some of the road blocks that I am sure will pop up as I go through this journey.  I hope that if you stop by and read that you enjoy the story of my trials and tribulations.  I will try to throw in some humor if I encounter any through this journey. 


Any and all comments are welcome.


Enjoy!
Emmy