I am a very good girl..

I got my 4 1/2 stone award on Monday night at Slimming World. This was unexpected as my weight loss had slowed down recently but I lost 2lb - so I was very pleased with myself.

Could not stay for Body Image as I had to go to Miss Breslins retirement do where I ate all 3 courses and they were really gorgeous and we are going away for the weekend to Norwich and its really hard to keep on track when I am away - so I am having to be really good this week. Have managed the gym 3 times already and have increased my weights which are making my arms and legs ache so hopefully are working.

One of the girls on UKS Slimming World forum said that she could not buy mince pies this year in case she ate any. Well take pity on me! My family expect home baked goods all the time so I have to bake very few days and be very good and just look and smell the results and can't even lick the spoon! here are today's offerings.



Scrummy coffee cake!



Luscious mince pies!



Jammy coconut buns



I have been so busy with things this week that I have not been able to do my week in the life - of me like I had planned. Still have all my stuff so will do it next year when life is not quite so manic.

had my gym review yesterday

Had my review yesterday with Richard to see what changes have happened in the 6 weeks ince I have been at the gym and in fact - NOT A LOT!

As you can see all the levels seem exactly the same as before - except a slight change in my diastolic BP. The level of body fat is now 34.5% (was 37%) and remains in the high category - not even in the above normal category! So when people tell me I don't need to loose any more weight - despite me telling them that I do - I will have to show them this page. I should be aiming to get to 23 - 28% body fat. I am ot sure that the gym attendance can account for this change as I have been loosing weight since I started so that is what accounts for the drop.

My peek flow was exactly the same -- he told me that i have not been getting breathless enough - ie not working hard enough - but I have its just that I know how to control my breathing - its what I tell women to do all day long!

So even though this review does not show much bodily changes ( I must have been very healthy to start with!) I know that I am increasing weights at the gym - lifting weights I could not have dreamed about when I started and can see some muscles appearing on my arms (along with the bat wings).

Richard went through some different gym equipment specifically to target my arms - and upped the weights on my leg weights so I will continue and see what if any difference there is at my next review at the end of January.

lost again - but I was lucky

yes, I lost another 1lb on Monday night making my loss - 4 stone 5lb now. The pressure is really on now as I have lost every week since I started and I am worried now that one week I will not have lost and will be very disappointed.
My loss is really slowing down - perhaps I am relaxing too much - but I will not make my 1 stone target by Christmas but it would be good to get to half stone. I need another 2.5lb for that - I used to do that easily in a week but not at the moment.

I nearly jeopardised this weeks weigh in as I had an attack of the munchies Monday afternoon and scoffed 3 hi-fi bars!! not good at all. I have been so good until now that I hope this is not the start of the slippery slope downwards!

I had been to the gym and worked very hard in the morning and came home and had an good healthy lunch - but then found that BBC had changed the time of Neighbours so I decided to clear out my work bag whilst waiting for it to start. Digging deep I found a pack of hi-fi bars I had put in for snacks at work if I could not get a break. I felt quite peckish so thought i would just have one - but it was so nice that I had another and then another - thank goodness there is only 3 in a pack or I dread to think how many I would have eaten. So it is the fault of the BBC really for changing their programme schedules!!!

Have not got much to show lately, but I have been constructive on the computer making up some photobooks on Photobox. I have finished the one of our summer holidays in Bournemouth this year and am working on our 2 Crete holidays books. The first book is quite expensive at £30 so I am just waiting now for some special offers for Christmas to be available - hope it will not be 2 for 1 as I only want one of each - I need money off them!

Some more scrapbook layouts

I have been busy yesterday doing some more scrapbooking! Yesterday I did this one about Jessica and her friends dressing up as fairies' for her 19th birthday.

I have photographed it twice as I have found the star from the top of her wand and am not sure whether to add it to the layout or not. So it is not stuck down while I think about it as it is quite bulky.

This second layout I finished this morning and like the last few layouts I have done - I have used Scrapagogo November kit and not even for the layouts that I had in mind to use for it! This one shows Liam in the NME signing tent at V festival (Weston Park) this year meeting Nicky Wire from the Manic Street Preachers. He managed to get a CD and some pictures signed by him - good job as they queued for an hour to get them.

This layout is a scraplift from ... In Creating Keepsakes October 2007 edition page.

A week in the life of...me!

More inspiration coming from Ali Edwards new book - I have decided to do an album about me again (already done an A-Z and have a few pages in BOM) but think it would be interesting to catalogue a week in my life.

I have chosen to do it the first week in December when I have got a few things on - so that it might actually be interesting. We are going down to see Jessica in Norwich and will pick our Christmas tree - 
fresh from the fields of Norwich. 
I have got a retirement do at the new football ground so can include lots of my colleages.
I will include slimming, the gym, grocery shopping, daily food and boring aspects of normal life - car journeys, baking, laundry etc. I have made a list of things to include just need to buy 7 folders to keep things in like receipts , emails, newspaper cutting etc. I have also bought a new 1GB card for my camera so I can take tons of photos so will hopefully have plenty to choose from.

I know this sounds a bit selfish doing me again and perhaps a bit dull as my life is not that exciting - but I really liked the comment Ali made -'imagine you could see in the week of a relative of yours 100 years ago.' now that would be interesting and so different to our life now, 
so perhaps someone may find it interesting in 100 years time!

I think preparation will be the key here - so I must make sure that I know exactly what to record. 
Not sure quite how to lay it out as the album that Ali used is a ring binder with pocket pages - so will have to give that some consideration.

photos of me & Shirley - Miss Slinky evening.

I had a lovely letter in the post this morning from Mandy - SW consultant, congratulating me on doing so well on Monday night and saying that I actually do look like a Miss Slinky now. With the letter she had sent me some photos of me & Shirley which was very kind of her as I had been stupid enough to forget my camera - me a scrapbooker!


I love this photo of Shirley because 1) she looks fab, but 2) because I am at the side laughing at Shirley because she has to have her photograph taken - completely forgetting that it would be my turn soon!


Shirley and I started at Slimming World on the same evening and she has done very well and has lost 2 1/2 stones. She only has another half stone to get to her target weight - so hopefully she will get there soon.

Halloween layouts

My order of Halloween papers from Papermaze arrived on Wednesday and I have been itching to use them ever since. So instead of going to the gym today I worked on these 2 layouts - I think that means I am a more dedicated scrapper than gym person!





These 2 layouts feature Jess & her friends all dressed up for Halloween last year.
The papers are by Making memories and are lush - the spider web paper is flocked. I did have the matching card embellishments as well but could not find anywhere to use them. I love the spooky buttons used in the corners, but cut my finger slicing of the back off the buttons, 
so that this scary layout nearly had real blood on it!