Favourite Things Friday

I used to live in a quite hilly area.  There weren't any bike or footpaths in my old neighbourhood and the speed limit on the busy road was 80kmph (50mph).


One of the many benefits of my new neighbourhood is it's much more pedestrian and bike friendly, there are footpaths and bike paths to ride on, roads with speed limits of 50kmph,  and no steep hills to climb. 

So I just had to buy myself something fun.

I love it.  I love the colour, it makes it go faster and makes me look cooler!  BP and I ride around the neighbourhood when she is here on the weekends.  It's so much fun and it's great exercise.

I had to have a bike with a basket. I haven't used it yet, but it looks cute, eventually I'll make a fabric lining for it.

I'm linking up with Shay for Favourite Things Friday.

Tuesday tidbits

The last few months have seen natural disasters one after the other, in the last week the scenes of devastation in Japan have been heart wrenching. My thoughts go out to all of the people both in Christchurch and Japan who have suffered from such terrible destruction and the end of life as they knew it.  I am hoping the future will bring hope and renewal for them.

I'd like to let you all know I am still in one piece and have had no further injuries despite going back to aquarobics, twice.  Unless you count getting water in my ear and having a little discomfort with that last night. Keep your fingers crossed that I survive for a few more weeks!

This is where I go to aquarobics.  We use the pool at the back of the photo. They're replacing the sails on the children's pool in the foreground so there is a lot of construction happening at the moment.  I'll take photos when it's all finished.

This isn't a pic of me or any of the people that I know.

Now for some mail that arrived.

Make Life by Sweetwater from Quilt This.

Lots of books from the Book Depository.

Not that I'm going to be making anything from any of these any time soon as I have a list of projects a mile long, but these are great for inspiration, and learning new techniques. Good bed time reading!

Finally this gorgeous picture on the front of the New Zealand Quilter magazine,  It's a great photo, the sky, the dress, the colours in the quilt and the car.

Update on Exercise

I spoke too soon.

I am pretty much 100% positive I've either broken or chipped the bone in my middle toe on my right foot.  This happened during Monday's aquarobics class. I can pinpoint exactly when it happened, I tripped over my toes, yeah I know, how the heck do you do that in the water, I did, and it hurts a lot.

Symptoms, it's throbbing, my toe nail is not exactly how it should be, (I'll spare you the gory details), and my toe is swollen.

So far my record is 100% strike rate, every time I have exercised in the last 12 months  it has been detrimental to my health.

I'm thinking about taking bets on what will happen at tomorrow morning's aquarobics class.

Yes I am going to go.

I'm a glutton for punishment, either that, or I'm an idiot!

Exercise + Me (still) = Bad Outcome

"The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein.

OK so I don't think I'm stupid........ yet, but clearly I don"t think I'm meant to exercise.

Today was the day to start exercising again after being a little very lazy for quite some time.

After my previous not so happy attempts at walking, I thought aquarobics would be nice.

Hmmmmm

The class started at 8.30 this morning and ran for an hour, I smothered my face and hands in SPF 50 but somehow forgot about all the other bits that would need sunscreen.

Now I resemble a tomato,

or possibly a cooked lobster, 

no, 

definitely a tomato.

Spiders, potty mouths, diets, exercise and challenges, a look back

Since it's a new year, I thought my blog could do with a few changes. I was going to go all out and change everything, but then decided against it as I like the way it looks. I've changed the header with some new photos. I kind of liked the original one more, but considering I made that cushion a whole 12 months ago, and I have been quite crafty for the last 12 months, I thought I'd change it to show that I quilt and crochet, after all I am quite proud of those finishes.

I wanted to look at some of my posts through the year too, and look back at whether my blogging has changed.  I don't think it has, maybe I've loosened up a bit since the early days. Reading some of my old posts was very very interesting. Getting to know Shay over at Quilting In My Pyjamas has been a huge influence on me. Her blog posts are very funny, she has a great sense of humour and she has taken me under her wing, so to speak, with helping me in my quilting (and in potty mouth training), lol, actually that is more likely the reverse!
We have struck up a real friendship over the last year and I think this post, Sew-in and a Spider sums it up completely. If you are going to click on this, consider yourself warned.

Looking back is sometimes not good, when you can see how many squillions of yards of fabric you have bought since since June 29 2010.  That cupboard is bursting at the seams now and I have a huge plastic bin and a basket filled to overflowing as well.  I really think I should go on a fabric diet.

Speaking of diets, hmmm, and exercise, remember these, Exercise+Me=Bad Outcome closely followed by Exercise + me is not a good equation which concluded with a bubble wrap helmet courtesy of Shay. I'm too vain to link you to that post, you will just have to find it yourselves, and it took me forever to find it, so good luck!!!! If you bribe me I might point you in the right direction.

Finally, why I was a bit very hesitant to take on another quilting challenge after my disastrous attempt with  the *@!# snowball challenge.

This has emphasised the fact that blogging has been such a rewarding experience, and more importantly, I now have a "diary" that I can refer back to as I haven't previously kept a diary.  I love this medium, 2010 was a great year of blogging for me.

Me + Exercise is not a good equation

Do you remember this life changing..... disastrous...... little incident with exercise a couple of weeks ago  here. You might need to read this first, before you read further.

So, after THE unfortunate incident I took it upon myself to continue exercising, by walking on the treadmill in the safety of my own home. It was enjoyable to be able to walk for 30 mins without falling over, tripping up, being savaged by wild beasts or injuring myself. This has been a nice, safe form of exercise for me.

Until Monday morning.  

Unfortunately my treadmill died a very quick and unexpected death................while I was on it.  It could have had disastrous consequences, fortunately for me, I was not running.  I think I would have ended up going through the wall like a bullet, as it stopped instantly, without warning.     The only unusual sign, that things may have been not quite right, was, the electronic read out told me after 10 mins of walking, I had burned 350 calories, woo hoo, and I had covered 6 1/2 miles, wow! I was in the middle of celebrating this awesome achievement when it died.

I am now going to attempt to go walking outside, in the sunshine, with awesome views and hope like heck I don't fall over again. I haven't been able to find a sumo costume so, please keep your fingers crossed for me that I stay upright. BTW I am still waiting for my bubble wrap helmet, Mrs P.

I am also not taking Mr Innocent out for a walk either.

Now that I think I may have found my crafting mojo, I don't want to be savaged again by this gigantic fierce hound.  

Poor boy. 

Exercise + me = bad outcome

No dogs were harmed in the following, just me. 

There has been extreme lack of exercise here for some time, partly as I hurt my foot last time I did some serious exercise, partly it's so hot and humid in paradise , and mostly coz I'm lazy.

I tend to either do no exercise at all, or go all out and work out 7 days a week, which I can't sustain, then I stop. Never ending circle!!!!! I need to find a happy medium.

I have now been doing no exercise at all for quite a few months, which has led to weight gain, and consequently high blood pressure.  To counteract this, I have been madly dieting, and dare I say doing well at that, and trying to get back into a bit of exercise, of 30 mins a day.  The weather has been very wet here, and I could go out in the rain and walk with an umbrella, I don't, because our rain is usually torrential, and an umbrella would possibly keep the top of my head dry. I have been intending to use the treadmill at home, but that is boring.  Yesterday I decided I just have to walk, even if I only do two 20 min sessions a day. It is quite hilly around here, and the road I have to walk along to go anywhere further than a 20 min walk has no foot path, very limited pedestrian access and very fast trucks and cars. It is quite dangerous.


Which leads me to todays story. Walking for 20 mins means I can take the dog for a nice quick stroll, on a quite undulating circuit.  It should be pleasant, but as I found out yesterday, due to dogs roaming loose around here it can be quite hazardous for me.  As a dog approached us, I picked Karma up as I thought he might be in danger , and as I picked him up, he bit me, HARD.  Karma is 8 yrs old, he has never bitten me before, ever.  Then when I walked away with him and reached our yard I put him down and he bit me again. HARD, he broke the skin, this from a dog who won't eat bones, biscuits or anything hard.  So there goes the idea of my 20 minutes of walking the dog morning and afternoon. Apparently a number of the dogs in the street are allowed to roam free.

If Karma thinks he is going to get walked again after biting me twice, well, he is very sadly mistaken. (He is an inside dog, but we live on 3 acres so he does get exercise.)

Innocent? I think not.

After this aborted attempt, I went for a walk with Renata, walking along having a nice chat, as we weren't exactly being strenuous,  I tripped over the foot path, did a couple of running steps thinking that I would just stumble, and found myself sprawled on the ground after going A over T in a very undignified manner, ending with a grazed knee and ankle and sore hands. It was funny, in fact very funny, so you can chuckle here, only my pride and dignity were damaged, the graze isn't too bad. Fortunately for me, Renata was the only one who witnessed it....I hope.

This leaves me with the question, which is worse?

A. Doing no exercise

B. Exercising and ending up with serious injuries.

I think I do need to exercise, but I am contemplating buying one of these outfits,

as I should have enough padding to protect me when I fall, and have the extra bonus of sweating off a bit of weight at the same time.

Might need a helmet too.