Friday Fave Five - Frozen Toes Edition

With a puppy happily snoring on my treadmill next to me, it's hard not to think of happy things.  So without much of an introduction, here's this week's Friday Fave Five.

1. Feeling generally healthy.  A couple weeks ago I decided no more excuses, I'm kicking the Diet Coke habit for good. And I have!  Cold turkey!  I went from 3-4 20oz bottles a day to none!  I drink only water  now (and a glass of wine or beer at night when I'm sewing...it keeps me honest lol) and I've found myself making better food choices as a result...every time I think "hmm, maybe I'll just grab some drive through" I realize the only drink choices are sodas, so if I want to eat there I'd have to drink soda...and I don't want soda so I opt for something healthier (even if it's just going to the salad bar at the grocery store next to the Taco Bell.)  I feel better, I've ended up working out more (not a lot, just 10 minutes here and there), and guess what?  I've dropped 4 lbs!  Guess I'll keep going with this no soda thing.  :-) 

2. On the heels of that, I'm heading towards having a new (mildly lucrative) hobby!  I signed up to  get certified to be a spin instructor! In a couple weeks, I'll spend a full day learning how to teach spin classes, then will head right on over to my gym and demand they give me a microphone and an iPod jack.  Or something like that.  :-)  I'm already making up playlists...cannot wait!

3. On a completely unrelated note, I shipped my first commissioned quilt this week!  Those of you who follow this blog regularly are probably sick of hearing about it, but I'm still reeling over the fact that someone actually requested (and paid for) my creativity!  I sent the woman pictures while it was in progress, and she said her son wouldn't let her close the window because he wanted to keep looking at it...how's that for a glowing endorsement??  I've since moved on to another design that I'm very excited about and that I've already posted as a "coming soon!" in my etsy shop.  I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the weekend, pending thank you notes. 

4. Speaking of which, I always forget that the weekend previous counts towards this Friday's Fave Five!  Working appliances!!!  MOTU's dad generously bought us a new washer/dryer set for a wedding gift, and I cannot express enough how wonderful it is to have a functional dryer!  Seriously, there's a mountain of CLEAN laundry in the bedroom that I haven't gotten around to folding yet...so the worst part of laundry, don't you think?  I can't stop running loads though!  It's so delightful to have them come out clean and dry the FIRST time!!  I won't even start about how glorious it is to have a dishwasher!!!  (This could count as 3 separate faves if I let them!)

5. Simple, yummy, unusual food.  This week has been Nicaraguan week over on my cooking blog, and while I've only made 2 nights' worth of dinners (we've been munching on leftovers of both the rest of the week) they've been super quick and easy, and super yummy.  Tomorrow night I'm attempting flan and stew.  Wish me luck.  :-)  Next week is Greek week...anyone got any good recipes (and/or want to join me for the challenge?)