Thursday 26 January 2012

Australia Day 2012

Happy Australia Day!

I have nothing planned for today - except a day of rest and relaxation and staying cool!  Unfortunately, I couldn't take tomorrow off work as annual leave - to make it a long weekend, but I'm definitely going to enjoy my day of not working today!!

I slept in 'til quite late this morning, so  no getting up at 5-00am this morning!  I'll go for a walk later this evening when it's a lot cooler.


Jen.

Sunday 22 January 2012

Week 2 & Week 3

Week 2

I lost a whopping 100 grams for this week - A little bit disappointing, but that averages out to just under a kilogram for each week, so not too bad!

Week 3

Still walking nearly every morning and evening (well except for this weekend) so just about 2 hours of brisk walking a day, eating lots of salads, no lollies, sweets etc and I lost another whopping 100grams!  To say I'm a little peeved is an understatement!! 
I'm now telling myself that I'm building muscle and that weighs more!!!
I must admit that the aches and pains from the walking have disappeared and I do enjoy the time to myself - but getting up so early in the morning is the pits.
Oh well, I hope that at the end of week 4 I'll have more to report that a loss of 100 grams though!

Have had a very quiet weekend - felt so tired yesterday and did not much except read and doze.  Today, we took Laura to work and Neale and I went out to lunch at my favourite cafe, followed by a spot of window shopping and grocery shopping and more reading. Didn't need to cook tea as we were so full from lunch.
Once I start reading I just don't stop and have read 5 books this weekend!

Only 4 days of work this week as Thursday is a public holiday for Australia Day - I'm already looking forward to it!

Jen

Sunday 8 January 2012

Week 1

I'm pleased to report that I have had success in this first week - with regard to being healthier, eating healthier and making time for exercise. I have dropped 1.7 kg! I realise that this won't be the norm, but it's such a boost to the ego and tells me that I'm on the right track. Onwards an upwards - well maybe downwards in this case!! Jen

Monday 2 January 2012

My Latest Pattern Haul

This is my latest haul in patterns!

I bought the two Butterick See & Sew Patterns from Spotlight on Saturday for $5.40 as they were having a 50% off on all patterns.
B5513
B5515
V2962
V8146
V8682
V1169
V7762
V8574     
The above 6 patterns were ordered from BMV a couple of weeks before Christmas and arrived on the Wednesday after Christmas when the mail deliveries resumed.

Last week, I discovered that BMV were having another sale and so I have ordered 7 Butterick patterns. I think I've nearly caught up with all that is on my wish list!

Jen

3/1/12  updated the photos of the patterns - I took the not very good ones that were previously  shown but I'm not a very good photographer.  I'll leave that to my husband Neale - he's a photographic artist, and has nothing whatsoever to fear from me!



    















What Cheeses Me Off!

I was in Target last Friday only to see this sign plastered all over the shop.  The part that really cheeses me off is that if you still want to buy summer clothing/shoes etc - you're out of luck because all the winter clothing will be stocked in the next couple of weeks.  The thing is, Summer just kicks into gear right about now and we've still got several months of quite hot weather  to endure and frankly, I'm not even ready to consider winter garments-buying or sewing!
I know there is a rationale behind it all, but it is still  annoying.  By the time I'm ready to want some heavier clothing  - that's also on sale, to make way for the next season of summer gear - and all the good stuff is gone!!

Today, as well as the last couple of days has been really hot - with more of the same for tomorrow ! I've got to go back to work tomorrow and am so not looking forward to that.  it's going to take several days to catch it all up and find out what was done/not done and happened whilst I was on leave.
 
Jen



Sunday 1 January 2012

Christmas Aftermath

I meant to write this post a couple of days ago - but just didn't quite make it!

On Sunday lunch, we had the McDougall family Christmas at a restaurant in Traralgon.  It was great that the entire family was there.  I think it's only at Christmas that we all get together now.

It was a busy lead up to Christmas for us.  We attended Hadden's Year 12 Graduation Dinner on Monday 19th December and had a lovely meal. Hadden is pleased to be finished with high school and has no intention of going on to Uni or college at the moment and just plans to work at McDonalds whilst looking for full time work.  I'm hoping that in the future, he'll change his mind about further education though.'

Had a totally sleepless night Tuesday night - as we discovered that Hadden had an accident in his car - thank heavens he's ok, the car survived albeit a little bruised/battered and scratched on the front bumper (the bonnet is now not sitting flush either).  He was driving home from a friend's place in Mirboo North when he came around a corner only to find a wombat strolling across the road - he swerved to miss the thing, but he lost control of the car on the gravel road and veered into a dirt embankment.  Thankfully, he wasn't going fast as he could easily have gone off the road into a tree or flipped the car. I was so worried and scared of what might have happened - especially as he was driving on a back road with not much traffic at night/early hours of the morning.
Needless to say he was very quiet on Wednesday and thankfully he wasn't injured at all and the wombat lives to wombat another day!

Wednesday at work, we held a BBQ for employees for which about 40 people turned up to. We were quite pleased with the turnout as we have over 200 employees on our books, but we cover all of Gippsland  - so some vast distances involved .  In the evening was the staff do - we went to a Japanese restaurant in Traralgon and had a banquet meal at the teppanyaki  (sp?) bar.  So much fun.  I skipped the offerings of seafood (yuk!) and mushrooms (yuk again!), but everything else was lovely.  The chefs were great and very entertaining with one of the chefs juggling knives, utensils.  They had us play games where they would start flinging food eggs, omelet and bowls of rice where you would have to catch it.  What an experience!

I practically ran out of work at 5-00pm on Friday 23rd.  I'd taken the 3 work days off after Christmas so don't return to work until 3rd January.
Saturday was spent cleaning and a little cooking and watching dvds etc

Christmas day was lovely.  I cooked a fantastic meal (modest, aren't I ??)  of roast beef with steamed veg, honeyed carrots and with a  sweet potato, potato and spinach bake - followed by a lemon cheesecake. In the afternoon, we went to see Neale's family.  We left to come home because of the worsening weather- lots of rain and storms predicted, but thankfully we missed the worst of it. Had just watched the dvd of "twister" on Saturday, so probably not the best film to have watched when we started seeing the weather reports on Christmas Day!

After that has been Christmas Recovery - ate too much, drank too much etc. 
Started cleaning out Hadden's old bedroom - which set off my allergies.  So thursday was pretty much a blur - took a tablet which seem to knock me out for the day!

Have done lots of reading since Christmas Day - about 8 books at last count.  I'm currently reading "Lionheart"by Sharon Kay Penman and "The Scottish Prisoner"by Diana Gabaldon.  I'm trying to buy most of my books as ebooks now from Amazon - they're cheaper than from the bookshop and dept. store and don't take up storage space.  I have soooooooo many books!  Neale threatens that they'd make a good bonfire.

Jen

Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year 2012 to all.

I saw the New Year in last night!
The last few years I've gone to bed early, but I managed to stay awake this year.
I kicked off the night by watching on tv "The Edinburgh Millitary Tattoo" my traditional New Year's Eve entertainment. Laura wasn't too thrilled about it! It was just a quiet night at home with the three of us - just watching tv, eating cheese and bikkies and drinking sparkling wine (Great Western - Brut Reserve!)
Hadden had been called in to work a shift at Maccas and after he came home, he went out to a party at a friend's place.
Wouldn't have a clue as to what the older 2 (Thomas &  Morgan) got up to - they don't live at home now.

 Goals/Resolutions

Ok - I should just copy and paste what I wrote for 2011!!! It's pretty much the same.

To sew more than one dress this year - hey at least I sewed something!
I suppose it comes down to prioritising and making time for what is important to me. I used to sew on a daily basis up until 2007 and since then, not much has happened.
Mind you, it hasn't stopped me buying books/patterns/magazines etc!

To lose weight - eat healthier - become healthier - to be slim, taut and terrific! Ok, Im fantasising about the last bit, but Í need to continue with the weight loss for my own health. I started back walking this morning - approx 5km before breakfast, so am feeling quite pleased and very virtuous. I loaded up my Ipod with an audio book "Fabric of Sin" by Philiip Rickman - so quite a few hours of listening until that book is done. I plan to walk later this evening again when the temp has cooled - it's now over 30 degrees. (hey, I need to know what is happening in the story!)

Jen