PaperChaserTO

After reading this article 27 People Confess To The “Fattest Thing” They’ve Ever Done, I want to share my story:

I had just came home from having a late dinner and was awfully tired. I seen some leftover pizza on the table and was enticed by the greasy box and the smell of cold cheese. This was the point where I should have gone to bed, but I just had to have it! So I grabbed a slice and ran to my room. The events that happened next were a big blur; however, when I awoke the tv was on, there was a half eaten slice of pizza in my hand, and a half chewed piece in my mouth. Yes, I fell asleep mid chew. Don’t worry, I still finished whatever was left, even the piece in my mouth…

This is really why I struggled with my weight. I didn’t use food as it’s meant: to supply your body with the energy needed to carry out your day. Food to me was something to be conquered whether it be how fast I could eat or how much I could eat. My family used to say, “Going to the buffet isn’t worth our money unless Kathy comes”. It was funny then but to think of it now, I did not accomplish anything by gorging myself. Food had conquered me, taken over my mind, and moved into my body.

I knew I had to change the relationship I had with food. The most important was recognizing the signs of hunger and fullness. I never ate until I wasn’t hungry, it was always to the point where I couldn’t even keep the food down. The next was building my will to say no. It was easy to say no when someone else would offer me food because I would be too ashamed to eat anymore. The hardest part was saying no to myself.

Self discipline. I had none of that when it came to food. The one thing that helped a lot was keeping myself busy. When I was doing things I enjoyed, I didn’t have the urge to open the fridge. Scheduling my day so that I had a list of things to do helped me become more organized and my meals became more regular. I found an active lifestyle made food taste better oddly, like my body deserved the food.

I write this as a reminder to myself as to why I had to make a change in my life. Unlike people relationships, I can’t dump food and never see it again. Healthy relationships lead to happy people. But, a treat once in awhile keeps life interesting :)

And as a Flashback Friday, I’ll throw it back 5 years with this:

So what's the fattest thing you've ever done?

View this tutorial on my new website!

Here it is! Part 2 of my explosion box tutorial shows you how to complete the outer 2 layers and the lid.

Among the items I make in the video are the felt cupcake, gradient layer, and large 4x4 inch pocket.

An explosion box is the perfect gift for a loved one, if you do give this a try I would love to hear from you.

Want to make an explosion box? Watch the tutorial playlist here:

Happy Crafting!

It's tradition now for the pasts couple years that I make thanksgiving dinner for my family (20-30 people). Last year was quite hectic, I tried to cram all the cooking into one day and on top of that I was doing it all by myself! This year though, I'm smarter and am going to plan ahead

plan more, stress less

So to make this more interesting, I'm going to be making thanksgiving dinner all from YouTube recipes! But so far I've got this for the menu:

Appetizers

Chickpea Avocado Guac

served with tortilla chips

Main

Turkey
How to Cook a Turkey Perfectly

Beef stew/roast

slow cooked overnight

Jamie's Easy Slow-cooked Beef Stew
Slow Cooker Pot Roast Recipe - Laura Vitale

Sides

Stuffing

turkey sausage

Mac and cheese

parmesan, cheddar, mozzarella
How to Make the Ultimate Macaroni and Cheese Martha Stewart
Mac and Cheese - Laura Vitale

Corn on the Cob

Biscuits

Gravy 2 ways

from turkey drippings and roast beef

Green salad

Mashed potatoes

creamy garlic

Dessert

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

White Chocolate Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

There is still a lot to plan especially since I've recently gotten a job as well XD Hopefully I get the day off...

Day after Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a blast! The day of was less stressed than years previous. I had prepared the stuffing, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, guac, and cupcakes the night before leaving very little for the day of. In addition to being well prepared, the slow cooking turkey method was so easy to follow, no need to baste; set it and forget it! The biscuits were a hit, and the beef was so succulent.

Everything wasn't perfect though, I bought the wrong potatoes and the mashed end up gluey. My initial intent of having an all YouTube based thanksgiving was too difficult to follow, but Laura Vitale has so many useful videos.

All in all, my family was fed and I was able to enjoy the evening with them. Happy Thanksgiving!

Read this tutorial on my new website!

It's here folks! This is a remake of my original birthday explosion box with a couple of changes. Some things I kept to the original like the party horn and the birthday hat, cupcake, pockets, gift box, etc.

This box was made for my dad's 56th birthday which just passed. He's an avid fisher so I make the cake fishing themed. The white boat is a simple origami boat (he taught me how to fold it as a kid ^^); the fishing rod is made from a tooth pick, thread, a bead, and some paper; the cooler is made from a simple rectangular prism net.

You can find the video tutorials for different elements of the box here:

Tealight Cake Part 1

Tealight Cake Part 2

Box Layers

Lid

I was testing out a couple of setups throughout filming of the box so please excuse the choppy set cuts. I've officially found my permanent set up though for all craft videos :D

Happy Crafting!

So it's almost September and for almost all my life this is the time when I get excited about another school year and a fresh start (similarly to that pre new years excitement). This year however will be the second year that I won't be going back to school. Last year I still had convocation to look forward to but this year it seems as though I've been living in a very long blur of nothingness.

Don't get me wrong, this time off from school, work, and responsibility has pretty much been heaven for me but with it I became lazy and unmotivated. I really dislike the saying "money is freedom" but this past year has taught me that money does give you some degree of freedom. Thus, the pressure is on to find employment or head back to school.

I've been debating which I'd rather do for awhile now. At times I think to myself, school isn't that bad, I can go back for a year or two for a post-grad program and I'd be set for a job once I graduate. But that was what I was told about my undergraduate degree - get your post-secondary education and you'll find yourself a comfortable career...BULLSH!T (I ain't mad...) And on the other hand I've been applying to jobs in my field and have had no luck in even getting a call for an interview.

Life's sad when not much is going your way.

But I'm taking a new leaf to life's challenges and instead of dwelling on what isn't, I will work to make the changes I want to see in my life.

Staying positive and working persistently is the key to success. Don't forget that 😊

-KT