Embellish your World

Personal Best

54 lengths in 50 minutes, the furthest I have ever swam in one go and just 10 lengths short of a mile!

I was struggling to get to the 50 mark when I was in the pool, but the closer it got, the faster I seemed to swim, and so with a few minutes left before the pool closed at 10pm and my 50 lengths done I thought I may as well swim another couple! Had a rest day yesterday (apart from plenty of walking and taking the stairs not the lift) and today I have done a Body Combat class and am off out for a late night walk with my neighbour shortly. As well as the Swimathon at the end of April I am also taking part in the second 15k night hike run by the Council I work for in aid of the local hospital and cancer hospice. I completed the 15k last year, over 2 stone heavier than I am now, in just under 2 hours and am hoping to beat that time this year!

Only thing with all this exercise and healthy regime is less hours to scrapbook, especially with work deadlines as well. I have completed Shimelle's January Craft Along project though (just need to print my photos off) and was thrilled she featured my Matt Cardle layout as one of her favourites from last week's starting point challenge.  There is a new starting point today, two infact, and hopefully I will get to play along at the weekend. I have done another layout of the lovely Matt Cardle as part of the ATDML gallery for next month so sadly I cannot share the whole layout just yer, but here is a cheeky little sneak!

Off for my walk now, need to get my minimum 6000 steps in today!

Starting Point Challenge

I played along with Shimelle's first starting point challenge for 2012 last night, but sadly didn't get up early enough this morning to photograph it and upload in time to enter the challenge. Not to worry, I still love my Matt Cardle layout which uses MME Lost & Found papers and some punched snowflakes for a wintery feel as the photo was taken after he switched on the Christmas lights at London's Regent Street.

We have the MME Lost and Found 2 papers in our February design team kit for ATDML and I have been super prolific with them and so far have 5 layouts, a card and a giftbag made. Can't wait to share them with you next month. For now, I need to log off and go to my Sunday morning step aerobics class - yes, I think I may be mad!!

Catching up

I am been super productive this week plenty of those little jobs finished off hence the lack of blog update. We have decorators coming in tomorrow to assist us in completing a few more tasks too as we continue to win the battle against the house! Hoping the boys are old enough now that the decorating/new carpet will not be destroyed in five minutes, that being one of the main reasons we have held off since the loft conversion was completed almost 2 and a half years ago! Their rooms were all done but we didn't refresh the communal area stairs/hall etc whilst little finger prints were still capable of destruction in 10 seconds! Saying that Jamie is only 5 next month so I guess it could still happen!

Health and fitness wise I continue to win that battle and make great strides towards my goals. My second swimathon training session by far exceeded my aim of 40 lengths (which was an increase of 4 on last weeks 36) but instead I managed 50! That is half the distance I am aiming to cover in April. Took me 50 minutes to do, so my overall aim to complete 100 lengths in 90 minutes may be doable after all with some more training.

This week I also lost the largest amount of weight in a week since I have been slimming which did make me smile and just 3 more lb and I drop down yet another stone bracket!  Still have 10 more weeks til my friends wedding and our cruise holiday to get a little more comfortable in my dress, but my weightloss journey will continue past this deadline so I don't see it as a finish line by any means. Didn't stop me enjoying a divine curry and beer with my husband last night either as we celebrated his 39th birthday and planned our trip to New York (fingers crossed) for his 4oth next year!

Finally, before I depart for what was supposed to be an early night(!) I wanted to share the full Simple Stories layout I taught at our ScrapMates debut crop for 2012 last weekend.  Some of you may have already seen it in the ATDML gallery or indeed on their blog, but incase you haven't (non-scrapping friends!) here it is.

You can read all about the crop here and see the papers need to create the above page here.

Simple Stories Gallery

The January Gallery is up over at A Trip Down Memory Lane and features over 50 illustrations with Simple Stories papers. Here is a quick peak at some of my creations for that gallery, and then I am away to sleep!

Simple stories have a great blog too with plenty of inspiration which can be found clicking on this link and there facebook page is here.

I am looking forward to teaching one of these pages at the Enfield ScrapMates crop this Saturday. More infromation about the crop, venue etc can be found on the blog.

Progress

Another 1lb lost this week at Slimming world and a good start made to my Swimathon training. I managed 36 lengths tonight in 30 minutes, just over a third of the distance I will be attempting in April.

I have Zumba booked for tomorrow night then Boxercise again on Thursday. Hoping my arms won't give in on me before the crop on Saturday! Must try and be as good with my food this week as I am with my exercise! Then I shall surely see a nice meaty weightloss!

Getting excited now

Not long back from visiting the hall again where my crop will be held next Saturday. Feels so exciting to be running the crop monthly again having had a good 18 month break from it to focus on my family and my health.  We have over a dozen ladies all joining together next Saturday in the name of craft and their will be an optional class project which consists of a 2011 in review scrapbook page, and here is a little sneak...

Plenty handcutting so at the very least the newbies won't be bored!

 Moving on I have a minor confession to make publically.......before yesterday I had NEVER baked a scone before!!...... and another confession..... before yesterday I have NEVER eaten three in a row with jam and cream either!!   I must be good at them eh?  *snigger* The scales will hate me on Monday and I will totally deserve it! Good job I have Boxercise Sunday evening and swimming on Monday to counter balance the damage. And I should probably mention now that I have been persuaded to particpate in this year's Swimathon.  I will be undertaking a 2.5k swim which is 100 lengths of my local pool (and should also mention that the furthest I have ever swam before in one go is not even a third of this!)

I will keep you all posted on how my training is going of course, and hopefully together with the Boxercise, dieting (which excludes any more scones!) and walking I will achieve my goal weight this year! Stay tuned for updates.

 

Scrapbooking in 2012

Well I'm on layout #5 for the year in just 3 days, but then 2/5 are for a forthcoming Scrapbook magazine issue and the other 3/5 are for January's ATDML gallery so sadly I cannot share any just yet. One of the ATDML layouts I am also hoping to teach at my first ScrapMates crop of 2012 which will be held in Forty Hill, just off Junction 25 of the M25 on Saturday January 14th. If you happen to be free and fancy coming along please email me at the crop address, everyone welcome. Scrapmates@blueyonder.co.uk

I have a couple of projects to finish off too which I can share in the next few days. One being my November and December pages from my 2011 Project 12 album. I was sad to learn that SCT won't be hosting Project 12 again for 2012, especially as I had made up three kits for crafting friends as Christmas gifts. All of these ladies will be regular crop attendees though so we will still be doing Project12 (twelve double layouts a year each summarising a month) on our own using pagemap sketches for 8.5x11 double layouts, this being our chosen format.

I'm also trying to take a set of 366 photos, one a day this year using my phone and an android app called 365 photos. Who knows some of these may feature in my Project 12 also. So lots of crafty things planned for the year, as always! I wouldn't be me otherwise now would I? Be nice to learn of other crafty challenges out there people are doing too, do let me know.

Welcome 2012

Looking forward to an exciting new year full of possibilities, crafting and living! 

An Elf layout

Our Elf Timmy has gone with the boys to Grandma & D-Dads house for a few days, this of course to ensure he continues to keep a good eye on them and report back to santa with tales of their behaviour! I am off on a two day course now (oh what a perfect time of year for it) but when I retun there is no more work and just the foody preparations for Christmas day to undertake. I am catering for my in-laws as well this year and have studied Nigella and Jamie for top tips. Quite fancy the shredded brussels and bacon idea and how about celeriac?

So as promised here is my Timmy the Elf layout (slightly blurry photo sorry!)  Loved using my large postage stamp punch with the Bella Boulervard papers to create a large photo mat with plenty of interest. So easy to create and a great way of using up left over papers and leaves ample of space for plenty of journalling. Why not tell the tale of one of your Christmas traditions with a similar page?

Cheesy grin photo

Love this photo of hubby and I taken on Sunday, nuff said really.

As mentioned yesterday the DT gallery for Christmas is now up on ATDML. Here are a couple of my projects for this month.

Tomorrow I will share my layout of Timmy the Elf - or you can pop over to the ATDML Christmas gallery now!