Friend Interviewin' Monday, plus a painting preview!

Happy Monday!  A new week has begun, and I am feeling rejuvenated and ready to forge ahead with my various projects. (Particularly my main one, which - as Richard puts it - is "Project Me.")

Lots of ground to cover today!

Weekend Recap
I was an editor's widow this weekend, as Tom was working on a side project - a short documentary - most of the time. I was able to keep busy with a ton of activities, including:

• A Friday night trip shopping trip with my dad, where I managed to style him in the vein of Steve Carrell as styled by Ryan Gosling in Crazy Stupid Love.  Brilliantly, I managed not to take a photo of him in his dapper zip-up cardigan and his fedora.
• One last outing with Dad before delivering him to the airport.  We went to my favorite Indian restaurant - Akbar - in Pasadena.  They make some seriously good naan, and Dad & I each ordered our own.  After we finished, we agreed that in the future, we'd only need to order one naan to share.  It's the latest food observation to add to my list of things to remember.
• A birthday party for my friend Ann's two adorable kidlets. 
• A birthday party for my adorable friend Joe.  They played a game that I am MOST DEFINITELY including in an upcoming Supper Club, and I cannot wait to share it.
• A planning session for an upcoming event - which I'm collaborating on with a few other friends who are also bloggers.
• A scoche of cat-sitting for two darling orange cats, Teddy and Peeta.  They were very cuddly.
• An outing to the farmer's market.  Holy cow, it is most definitely harvest season.  I bought some apples, some peaches, some heirloom tomatoes, some swiss chard (to practice recipes for aforementioned upcoming event) and some dinosaur pluots.
• A dinner with friends of ours who are also creative colleagues.

Painting Preview
Several of you (especially my sister) have nudged me for photos of all of the painting my dad and I did while he was visiting.  The room isn't completely ready for prime-time, because the weather has been unseasonably muggy, and the shelves and drawers aren't dry enough to be filled.  So instead, I'm going to post some sneak peek close-ups of a few things, and once all the books and clothes are tucked away in their proper places, I'll do another post with a better view of the room at large.

The wall behind our bed, plus our wrought-iron candle sconce.
It isn't quite this vivid - it's hard to capture perfect colors, even with a nice camera.

  

One of the bookshelves, with our starburst clock.

 
  

Part of our dresser.  This aqua is the same color as our wall - I think it's better captured here.

Friend-Interviewin' Monday
For those of you craving more Supper Club 600, the excellent Alyssa at Double-Chin Diary has posted her own recap of the event, plus an interview with me.  (My first interview! Heh.)  Alyssa is a bright, skilled blogger and I highly recommend you check out some of her entries, especially my personal favorite, "Chunky."  I relate completely to her story of sudden self-awareness brought on by a grandparent's comment.  Head on over and show her some support!

All right, you lovely people.  This is going to be a beautiful week, and I hope that you'll spend it doing good things for yourselves.  I plan to take very good care of me, and I want you to do the same!

Fashion Friday with guest fashionista, KENLIE!

I love fashion, and Heidi is my favorite plus-size fashionista. The first time I ever laid eyes on her in Hollywood, I loved her outfit, and I have literally loved every outfit since! When she asked me to write a post, I knew that I wanted to be a part of Fashion Friday because it's one of my favorite topics. =)

Though I still have over 100 pounds to lose, losing the first 100+ pounds has opened doors to new fashion possibilites. I still wear plus-size clothes (22-24 for now) and love to find fashionable clothing at a reasonable price! And a couple of months ago, I was shopping with my mom, and we found ourselves at Burlington Coat Factory. I knew that she had found some fun clothing there in the past, but I never considered shopping there for two reasons - my size and my inability to focus long enough to dig through piles of unsorted clothing. Who knew that I was so off-base?!

Burlington Coat Factory does sell plus-sizes, and while it does take a bit of effort to sift through the clothes (some of which isn't available in all sizes) it was easier than I thought to find fashionable (and reasonably priced) clothes. Right now, my favorite piece of clothing from Burlington is the dress I'm wearing below. It feels cool and breezy, and it doesn't wrinkle - a big plus for people like me who travel often! And it was only 24 bucks. Yay!

Heidi, David and Me

I'm looking forward to living near Heidi soon because I have a tendency to wear bright clothes with minimal jewelry. She has already helped me branch out, and I'm looking forward to more of that! For now, I tend to wear my standard, understated jewelry - my Michele watch from Saks, cupcake charm bracelet from Tiffany, Pandora bracelet, basic silver hoop earrings and my favorite Elsa Peretti star necklace (that I gifted myself with when I lost the first 100 pounds.)

Yep..I take lots of silly, close-up pics....

And what's a fun outfit without the right nail polish?! This is one of my favorite dresses because it opens up so many color options for my nails. My current favorite nail color is Mesmerize by Essie. And it goes great with the dress...at least, I think so! =)

Mesmerize by Essie - yes, I take pictures of my nail polish too...ha

My outfits and accessories play a role in how stylish I feel and how I feel overall. Taking time to choose outfits that are fashionable and flattering make put-together and confident. And as someone who is losing weight (i.e. changing sizes pretty often) Burlington Coat Factory is a win because it seems I can find the clothes I like at a good price. They even had a small selection of formal and semi-formal gowns.

I'll definitely be back at Burlington soon. Where do you should for trendy, inexpensive clothes? What tips can you offer on being stylish and comfortable at any size?

[Note from Heidi - You can find Kenlie at her blog, All the Weigh.  Thanks so much to Kenlie, David and Alexa for their guest posts.  It definitely gave me the chance to rest up from the surgery, which went well.  I'll be back with my own post on Monday!]

In the kitchen with guest chef DAVID!

Well hello, readers and fans of Finishing the Hat!  I'm David, and I blog over at Keep It Up, David, and I've had the pleasure of knowing Heidi for almost 14 years.  I still remember where and when we met (because you don't forget when you meet someone as dynamic, funny, and memorable as Heidi): it was on the sidewalk outside the Power Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan during orientation before our freshman year in the Theatre Department at the University of Michigan.  Our entire class was walking together into the building, and all the other guys in our class were sizing each other up, acting all tough and being all alpha-male-ish (I wouldn't have been surprised if they had whipped out their dicks to see who was biggest), and I was tired of it.  So I turned around, walked back to a pair of girls that I hadn't met yet, and introduced myself.  One of those girls was Heidi.  And here we are, 14 years later, still friends!

Heidi and I fell out of touch for a few years, but we reconnected last fall, when she started following my weight loss blog and leaving the most wonderful, supportive comments.  One of the things she told me back then was that she's a big fan of the recurring post that I call "What's In The RediSetGo?"  If you aren't familiar with the RediSetGo, then you are missing out.  It's my favorite informercial product ever (learn more about it here), and I created a little game for my readers whenever I use it.

So, in honor of Heidi, and to thank her for inviting me to write a guest post for her blog, I give you... a very special edition of What's In The RediSetGo?  Don't worry - you'll figure out the rules.  They're easy-peasy.  Ready to play?  Here we go!

WHAT'S IN THE REDISETGO?

GRILLED CHICKEN BREAST is in the RediSetGo!

The chicken is seasoned with black pepper, and the RediSetGo cooks it up perfectly in about 10 minutes.  While a plain grilled chicken breast isn't the most original or creative meal, it was only one element of my lunch the other day.  The entire meal was chicken with onion and rosemary sauce, served over sauteed zucchini.  It's based on a recipe I found in the Comfort Home Diet Cookbook, but just like pretty much every recipe I come across, I modified it to better suit me (in this case, removing some butter and oil).  I'll walk you through how I made the rest of the meal:

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, I sauteed 1 onion and 3 gloves of minced garlic in a little spritz of Pam.  I happened to have 1/2 a white onion and 1/2 a red onion in my fridge, so I used those:

After they sweated and started to turn translucent, I added 3 teaspoons of flour:

And 1/2 a cup each of low-sodium chicken broth and skim milk:

I stirred, stirred, stirred, and the sauce thickened (thanks to the flour) and became creamy (thanks to the milk), and I added the final ingredient: about a teaspoon (probably a little more) of dried rosemary, which I crushed between my palms before adding to the pot:

 

Then came some more stirring, and soon, a delightful sauce was finished:

Meanwhile, in my small nonstick skillet, I sauteed 1 zucchini and 1 yellow squash in a little Pam:

Put it all together, and you have one delicious-lookin' plate!

This perfect bite had all the components on the same fork:

There you have it!  A delicious, healthy, simple meal, and if you don't have a RediSetGo, you could easily just cook the chicken in the same pan you saute the zucchini in, or use leftover pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from the supermarket.

This actually marks my sixteenth (!) installment of "What's In The RediSetGo" - and if you're lookin' for other simple, healthy meal ideas, you can check out parts 1 through 15 by clicking here and scrolling down a wee bit. 

I'd like to end my guest post by saying how incredibly proud I am of Heidi and all that she's doing to take care of herself and improve her health and well-bring.  She's one incredible and inspiring woman, isn't she?  Keep it up, Heidi, and...

Keep it up, David!

Adventure Wednesday... with Guest Adventurer Alexa, the Curvy Nerd!

It seems like every outing with Heidi & Tom is an adventure, and last Friday was no exception! They introduced me to downtown Los Angeles's summer dance party series. You heard me right -- L.A. has a summer dance party!

Dance Downtown takes place at the L.A. Music Center, right by the opera house/fancy Disney music hall you've seen in the movies (notably: Iron Man). Every other Friday, from 6:30 to 10 p.m., there is a FREE dance party celebrating a different genre of dance/music. This past Friday was Bollywood.

Never heard of Bollywood, let alone seen Bollywood dancing? That's the fun part -- they kick off with a thirty minute dance lesson, followed by about 45 minutes of "free style" dancing (to the week's music theme). Then the cycle kicks off again with another lesson (so you can show up at around 8, like we did, and catch the 2nd lesson).

Bollywood was a BLAST. Our instructor was Achinta S. McDaniel who heads up the Bollywood dance school/performance group blue13 dance company. She was peppy, funny, easy to follow and taught us a Bollywood dance routine that had us hopping around and bouncing our hips to the beat. Let me tell you, we totally looked like this:



Ok, not really. (by the way, that scene is from Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, my favorite Bollywood film -- it involves dance numbers set in the streets of Paris & London and a dance competition!)

Fun fact about Bollywood/Bhangra: you sweat. A LOT. Our friend Rena remarked: "she's the Bollywood Richard!"

If only I had known! I would have worn better footwear (ballet flats - can go flying off your kicking feet) and my sports bra. It was a proper workout! Next time, I will totally be rocking out like this:



(fun fact: Katrina Kaif, the lead in Sheila, is UK-born, though she's a HUGE Bollywood star)

Los Angeles can't be the only city with a fun, free summertime activity like this. Check your local city for something similar. Get out, shake your booty and have fun!

L.A. based or bound? This is the schedule for the rest of the summer? (note: you WILL see me at Disco)
July 15 - Argentine Tango
July 29 - Disco
Aug 12 - 60s Night
Aug 26 - Zydeco
Sept 09 - Samba

Essentials:

• on-site parking is $9 flat rate for the evening
• on-site food is limited, but includes a taco stand.
• there's a cash bar if you want a little wine to get your groove going
• the on-site convenience store has bottle water for $3.50... or ask for a little plastic cup and get tap water for free :)

Big news for weigh-in Tuesday, plus my guest post at ALL THE WEIGH!

Good morning, and a beautiful weigh-in Tuesday morning it is.

I have some news for you.

It's big news.

As of this morning's weigh-in, I weigh 316 pounds.

I have lost 50 pounds.

I'm excited, and proud, and it makes me feel even more committed to my journey towards health and strength.  It's just a number, but to some people, it's a number that says "she isn't kidding around."  And I'm not.  This life journey is for real.

An exciting link for an exciting morning... Kenz at All the Weigh invited me to do a guest post, so you can head over to her blog to read my tips on how to be a foodie while losing weight.

I'll be back tomorrow with an Adventure Wednesday that is a celebration of my news today.  I can't wait to share it with you. And in case I haven't told you enough lately... your support is a major part of my success.  I am grateful to each and every one of you who is helping me along on my journey.

Take care of you today - and every day.  I know you can do it!