Gettin' Hooky!

Welcome back! First, I have to say a big "Thanks" for all the lovely comments that were left yesterday! It was lovely to be welcomed back to blogging so enthusiastically!

Yesterday I promised you that I would be discussing all things crochet today, so here I am! Are you sitting comfortably? Got a cuppa in hand? No?!!.... okay, quickly go make yourself one. I can wait!

Okay, now that you're back... lets get started! So, I picked up a crochet hook for the first time in July last year. I was very quickly hooked! Pardon the pun.  Between YouTube and a book that a friend lent me I managed to pick up the basic stitches. After that it was simply a matter of how many patterns I could lay my hands on and how much yarn I could get hold of. I've discovered a whole new addiction!

I started off learning how to do granny squares, but got bored of them quite quickly. Oops. Then I found a lovely pattern on the web for a hook holder. I couldn't resist! In fact there's loads of tutorials and free pattern on this lady's website.  Here is my finished Hook Holder...

I also made a cardigan made out of two Granny Hexagons. It's a really clever pattern!

I made a little drawstring bag using these yarns too, but I haven't quite finished it yet. It just needs lining. Once I've finished it I'll take a photo and post it for you to see!

Over the past few months I've finished quite a few projects including:

Crochet bunting for my kitchen (pardon the strange facial expression, I think I must have been concentrating!) 

A lovely soft frilly scarf. I made a few of these for Christmas presents and to sell. They sold ok, but I still have a few to sell! Let me know if you want one. 

My latest finish is this Kindle Cover. I love my Kindle but I was worried about the screen getting scratched so I made this cover to protect it. I'm quite pleased with the results!

I also made a little handbag for my SIL's Christmas present, but then I forgot to take a photo of it! D'oh! I'll try get her to take a photo for me so I can show you.

Now you may be wondering where I've been getting my inspiration and patterns from? The easy answer is... online mostly. More specifically, I've been browsing blogs like Attic24 and Coco Rose Diaries and finding lovely free patterns on Ravelry. Inspiration has also been easy to find on Pinterest, there's another thing that I'm addicted to! If you're looking for some crochet inspiration on Pinterest then I've put together a board of hooky goodness. Have a look!

I've also started going to a stitching group. It's been great to have a couple of hours each week to sit and crochet and natter without being interrupted by the kids, hubby or any of the three million things that I'm supposed to be taking care of. Some great 'me' time and I get to be creative too! Our group is called Glasgow Fort Stitch'n'Bitch and they meet on a Tuesday evening. If you're local and interested in joining us let me know and I'll send you details. They have a blog and a Facebook page too! I love grabbing a Starbucks and then having a hooky hour. Bliss! (BTW. I should say 'Thanks' to Karen from the group for taking all the photo's of my projects!)

So, are you inspired? Let me see what you make next. I've got a couple of projects that are nearly finished, so come back soon for an update.

WOYWW 8th February

Whoohoo! I'm back for WOYWW again. I haven't posted a WOYWW update in ages. That's not to say I haven't been crafting. I've been doing quite a bit of crafting - as the state of my desk will testify! However, I've been far too busy to blog my craftiness. But I thought it was about time that I did an update so you can see my mess. Here it is! (Don't say that I didn't warn you!!)

Here's one of the cards that I made recently.

However, papercrafting is not the only crafting I've been doing! Last July I took up crocheting. I bought myself a 4mm hook and some yarn and then sat and watched YouTube videos to learn how to do the stitches. Since then I've had something hooky on the go constantly and I've finished lots of projects. So part of my WOYWW really needs to be a picture of my hooky bag

Okay, so it's just a sneak peak really as you can't tell what these projects are in this picture, but it gives you an idea of what I've put my hand to lately! Come back tomorrow for a good look at some of my finished crocheting projects, inspiration and some hooky blogs I've been following!!

If you're interested in reading a some more WOYWW posts, head over to Julie's blog for loads more!

See you tomorrow, don't play hookie we're getting hooky!

Whoohoo Weightloss!

I'm a very happy bunny today!

I've been struggling with my (lack of) weight loss for the past 10 months, and I've been getting steadily more and more frustrated, disillusioned and discouraged with the whole process. On the other hand, however, I haven't really been *doing* the 'diet' properly either so it was hardly suprising that it wasn't really happening.

This year, as part of my "One Little Word" and the "Move More, Eat Well" classes that I've signed up for, I decided that I would get back to doing the 'diet' properly. It's taken me a while to get back into the swing of this but this morning I finally started seeing the results of my efforts. 2 lbs off this week!! Yay! So drinking more water, cooking fresh and TRACKING everything really does work!

Why did it take me nearly a whole year to remember that?!

Post Christmas Weigh In

I went to Weight Watchers today for my first weigh in after Christmas to find that I've gained 3½lbs. Now, I'd usually be getting really depressed at a figure like that but today I was actually happy about it! Mostly because I know how much I ate over the holiday period, how little I tracked (not at all!) and how much exercise I got (not much!). I also know that my scales at home told me last Friday that I had gained over half a stone!! It seems that my strict tracking, more exercise and eating waaaay better did the trick this week and limited the damage for my first weigh in. So yes, I'm actually happy with a 3½lbs gain.

I've been feeling a lot more positive this week and I'm thinking that maybe it's because I feel like I'm back in control of my eating again.... something that completely eluded me last year! Hopefully, I'll be able to hold onto this feeling for the rest of the year and can have some good results to show for it at the end of 2012.

How is everyone else going with their New Year Resolutions? Anyone else out there trying to lose weight this year??

One Little Word 2011/2012

Happy New Year too all my blogland friends! I hope that you all had a great Christmas and got everything you wanted. I was thoroughly spoiled this year and got quite a few gadgets to play with, including an iPod Shuffle and a new (to me) DSLR camera. Consequently, I've been taking a lot of photo's over the last week or so to convince myself that I *can* shoot on manual. I'm not sure if it's working at all, but I'm having fun!

Now, the New Year is here and it's time for many of us to make our New Year's resolutions. Well, I dispensed with those last year and decided to live my year by One Little Word instead. My chosen word for 2011 was 'Reclaim'. It was quite a difficult word to live by, but I think I managed it in a lot of ways... and failed dismally in others. So in 2011 my word was manifested in:

• the Kitchen: We reclaimed the room and some extra space by knocking down the boiler cupboard and integrating it into the kitchen and fitting new kitchen units, flooring etc. It looks lovely and I actually look forward to cooking now. Result!
• the Finances: We installed our new 'Cash only' system in the form of the Envelope system. So far this is working wonders! Ok, so we're not out of debt yet, but we have managed to get through some emergencies and Christmas without having to increase our overdraft. Result!
• the Nappies: Potty training Weeself was a mission and a half! However, after 3 months the message finally sank in and I was able to reclaim the 'nappy' bag for other use. Result!

So there were also some failures along the way. Firstly, my weightloss. Well, lets just say that it completely stopped. Thankfully, I managed to limit the damage and haven't actually piled any of the weight back on again. Secondly, I struggled with Depression during the summer.... not exactly 'reclaiming' the life I wanted to lead. Thirdly, we took a step backwards with regards to churches. The less said about that the better. However, other than that I think 2011 was a pretty good year over all!

This year I will be attempting to live by One Little Word again. I think it's a great alternative to making New Year's Resulotions which get broken before the end of January comes round. So my word for 2012 is: 'Persevere'.

I'm hoping that I can 'Persevere' this year in: 

• My weightloss
• Stampin' Up!
• Crafting
• PTA
• Finding a new church
• Loving my family
• Making a home
• My faith
• Fitness
• Blogging more regularly
• Learning to use my DSLR properly

There's a lot on my list but I don't think any of them are out of my reach. 

Do you make New Year's Resolutions or do you live by One Little Word? If you're a OLW person what is your word for 2012? 

See you soon!

Depression, Swimming and Eating a Frog

In January this year I chose the word 'Reclaim' as my One Little Word for 2011. I envisaged reclaiming my weight loss, my spiritual side, my house.... and I have done some of those things. However, the one thing that seems to have reclaimed me is Depression. I don't know why and I have been trying to fight it but it's been very hard going. Every time I felt like I was winning something would come along and knock me down. It's been a constant battle. However, the one thing I really didn't want to do was to go on medication. It may seem stupid but I have seen friends and family members taking their little 'happy pills' and they have worked. But I have also seen those same friends and family members trying to wean themselves off the pills only to go right back into depression again. It's not something I want. A lot of things have been affected by my state of mind. My weight loss, for one, has completely stopped. I have managed not to gain any so that's something to be grateful for, but I've hit a plateau. This plateau has lasted almost a whole year now and it's very frustrating! It was so frustrating that I stopped going to my Weight Watchers meeting for 3 weeks because I couldn't face the scales... and that didn't do my mental state any good either because I felt like I was quitting.

On Monday evenings I take Herself to her swimming lessons at the local community pool. As she's old enough to go in the pool on her own for the lesson I normally sit at the tables provided and do some reading or chatting etc. However, this past Monday I decided that I would go for a swim too. As the larger pool was available and there were some people doing lengths I decided to join in and do some too. I think I must have done about 20 in the half-hour I had available. It felt good! Little did I realise that the swimming instructor was watching me! The following day at Weeself's lesson she offered to devise a programme for me to improve my fitness, which I  gladly accepted. I LOVE swimming and would much prefer to be in the pool than the gym. I went along to the pool on Wednesday morning, child-free, and was handed a killer programme. 64 lengths!! A mile!! Never would I ever challenge myself to do that, but I got swimming and had finished all 64 lengths in an hour and a half. Wow. I shocked myself and, boy, did it feel good!!! I was buzzing for the rest of the day until the evening.

That evening I phoned my Stampin' Up! Upline, Julie, and she told me about Eating Frogs. Ewwww.  Ok, not that Ewww, as it turns out. Julie told me to identify the tasks that I least enjoy or have been procrastinating about the most. Turns out I have PLENTY of those!! Those are your frogs. They are not pleasant to eat, but once you have eaten it you are safe in the knowledge that nothing else is going to be that bad for the rest of the day. Julie said that I have to eat my frog first thing in the morning so that the rest of the day can go smoothly, because nothing else is going to be worse than eating that frog!  Thanks Julie for the pep talk, it was just what I needed to hear!! I identified that my first frog should be getting back to WW the next morning..... and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I hadn't gained any weight in the 3 weeks I'd been off. Despite shovelling in enough food to feed an entire army! (Somehow I think the swimming helped with that!)

So, I'm back. Yes, I'm still struggling with the Big D and that's mostly likely going to be a long term battle. But between swimming, to get the endorphins going and to boost the weight loss, and Eating my Frogs, to get past the things that are bogging me down, I feel like there is actually light at the end of this tunnel now. Maybe this year hasn't been a complete waste? Maybe I can 'reclaim' things that I thought were lost?? I don't know, but for now I shall go swimming again and eat another frog.

Thanks for reading all this way through! Leave me a comment please, I'd like to know how you eat your frogs!!

WOYWW 05th October

Good morning peeps! Yes, I'm feeling a little better and life is getting back into some semblance of routine. I still have a lot of down days but in general I'm feeling a lot more positive than I was a few weeks ago. Thanks for bearing with me while I was AWOL!! I can see how many people visit this blog daily to see if I've updated and it is really lovely to see that you are keeping an eye out for me and my little life. Thanks!

Anyway, it's Wednesday again which means that people are linking up on Julia's blog for WOYWW again. I haven't taken part in aaaaages so I thought I'd get back into the swing of blogging again by showing you my desk. Or rather my whole room. I'm feeling like I need to shame myself publicly by showing you in all it's horrific glory. Maybe that will get me to actually go do something about the mess and sort it out!!!

Now, don't go screaming and running away.... okay?

On my desk is the remains of the stuff that got dumped after my new catalogue launch. The cutting mat which went downstairs for the event has made it back upstairs, but not actually back onto the desk. Unfortunately I actually need to clear the whole desk to put the mat back on. Sigh....

This is the rest of the room. As you can see, there's an awful lot of stuff that has just been dumped. And hubby has decided that the spare bed is an ideal place to put clean washing. Er, no! Clean washing goes back in the drawers please!! People have just started using the clothes straight out of the piles instead of putting it away first. All the boxes are from recent orders and they're waiting to be used for shipping ebay sales out to winning bidders. We've decided to clear out and sell some of our clutter, so far a pushchair and baby car seat have been sold. Neither of which needed boxes!! In the boxes in the foreground are all the stamp sets that got discontinued with the new catalogue. All 28 of them!! Ouch. I'm keeping a few of them for personal use simply because I like them, but the rest will also be sold off. What you can't see in this picture is the top of the chest of drawers or the windowsill. There is yet more gubbins piled on top of both of them!! I really must get this room sorted now, it's really frustrating me.

Do you find you can craft in a mess? Do you like things piled around you? Do you not mind the little snippy bits and the dribbled ink/paint all over your desk?? I don't! I feel like I need to tidy up BEFORE I do any crafting. Unfortunately that means that I'm always tidying and very rarely actually doing any crafting. Let me know about your mess/tidy crafting preferences in the box below!! Or even better, take a photo and come link up over on Julia's blog so we can all take a look.

See you soon and thanks for leaving a comment