New Year, New me!

Okay so it sounds cheesy, but for me i have never bothered with new years resolutions i am not that type of person. For me if i am going to do something then i have to pick the right time not a pre selected date that i am not really commited to. Also i don't want a new me i quite like the old one, but there does have to be changes. For that last 8 years i have suffered from pain in my back and hip, but where as in the past it has been sporadic when i had Freddie it became significantly worse and when i became pregnant with Alex it has been almost continual. Dispite just putting up with it, recently its become almost unbearable and thought i have been to the doctors quite a few times i have never been dealt with and i hav'nt been given any real help. I think one of the biggest problems is that there is such a big stigma attached to people who say they have a bad back, people automatically assume they are work shy and on benefits, Its one of the reasons that i don't tell people about it, or that i didn't use the crutches i was given and if people ask me to help with something i always do regardless of the fact that i might not be able to move later on in the day because i don't want people to think i am making it up or on benefits, which i am not and always tell any doctor that sees me so they know i am genuine but to be honest it shouldn't be like that. Anyway i digress, the last months have been awful and it is horrid to go to bed in pain and know that i will wake up stiff and in pain, i miss the cosy feeling i used to get when i climbed into bed and snuggled down, for me i haven't had that since before i was pregnant with Alex and it was so bad the only comfortable place  to sleep was on the couch.

So after exensive reserch i have congered up a plan to exercise my way back to a pain free life. Although acording to an articale in the daily mail that i saw on Facebook knitting can ease pain so god knows how bad it would be if i didn't!!!
Due to the pain and advice i was given to rest as much as possible i have tried to be careful to not make it worse and this has had the adverse effect of making my baby weight remain from Fred which i suppose has agitated the problem.

So two weeks ago i started, first of all i did 30 mins of wii fit yoga, but i then found a beginners video on you tube so have been doing that as well as walking anywhere between one hour and three hours a day for 5 days a week ( weekends i just do whatever i feel like!!). I bought a kettle bell and have been doing a 10 min you tube work out with that. The results are that my back feels much better, its still painful but its taken the edge off. However the rest of my body and every Mussels in it aches, so it could just be that's more painful than my back!!!! But i will keep at it and see what happens.

I have also made small changes to my diet. On the whole my diet is pretty good, but i have cut back on certain things and am using my fitness pal to track my calories making sure i keep to a certain amount without giving up some of the things i like and i hope doing it this way will help me to keep on track. I have lost 4 pound in the first two weeks so its the kind of steady weight loss i was hoping for and it leaves room to cut down further in the future if i start to struggle.

So we shall see what happens.
Bye xxx

Long long ago in a galaxy far way.........

There was a hubsand

who loved starwars

and was forever giving

his wife facts

and snippets of information

about starwars and

about the new films

that are due out far into

the future.

Husband had seen the hats that 

wife makes and 

wanted one....

a starwars one.

Wife new she had to find the

chosen one...

and so it began

To be fair i had been saying i would make him one for about two years.I did start to crochet him a hat that we had seen on google images but i never go round to finishing it, i think because i didn't believe he would ever wear it and i like to see things i have made used.

So before Christmas i i was on ravelry and i saw a fair ilse design for starwars (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fairisle-patterns-from-the-movie-star-wars), it had been intended for a jumper but with not long till Christmas and with how slow i am at knitting i knew this wouldn't be achieved so set about a hat.
 I have never done any fairilse knitting before apart from a couple of little squares when i was learning to knit, its not to hard when you get into it but i made a huge mistake by pulling the unused yarn far to tight resulting in a very bumpy and far to small hat. It was meant for Paul but just about fit Fred!
So i started again, this time with the knowledge of how to fix it, i swapped some of the patterns round so colors that were the same were nearer and i used separate yarn for each picture. It was looking batter and coming together, the second one only took a couple of days,

Comfy on the couch with Fred, Stripy blanket is still on the go and had another push over Christmas.

I set up all Freds New and old Take along Thomas track to keep him busy so i could get it done

Here it is the finished product!!!

We decided to take the bobble off as it looked better on Paul

Last weekend me and Molly and my neice Chloe and Ewan had an afternoon at Frozen Sing Along

It was held at the Oprea House which is a gorgeous old building that brings back many happy memories as a child of seeing shows there and being in shows there as well.

Molly loved it and they got some of the Kids dressed up to have a picture togther

Well its the end of the first week back and i am slowly getting back into the swing of things, new projects have been started and new adventures planned.

Byr for now

Fete du Printemps Ta-dah

After crocheting what feels like millions of Elsa Frozen hats over the last few months not to mention all the other types of hat. I really felt like pushing myself a bit more. There are so many different things i can just make whilst i am watching TV in the evening and i suppose i have just hit a bit of a rut with them, i still love crochet and can't imagine ever being with out it now and i still have my stripy blanket on the go for when i really don't want to have to concentrate but every now and then i like to stretch myself. So when picking out a pattern for a shawl/ scarf for my mums Christmas pressie this one looked like the ticket.

The pattern is from Ravelry and its the first paid for pattern i have had off there. There was a lovely little poem on the first page and the pattern was excellent and had both chart and written pattern. You can find it here http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fete-du-printemps


I chose a variegated yarn that i thought would be both easy and look gorgeous. It was Drops Delight in Autumn.

Due to all the orders i had, i didn't get chance to start it till mid December and i finished it at 9pm on Christmas eve! The last row took two hours!!!!

 

Unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice or the yarn color.

Hope you like it too xx

madness

And relax..... Wow its been ages since i have had a minute to myself let alone time to blog anything. But finally things are starting to wind down for Christmas.

Even though i have been incredibly busy for the last month it has all be for good causes. Over the past year i have really tried to get involved with the local community for several reasons. Firstly i was becoming very happy with my own company. Since we closed our shop 18 months ago i had been working from home and was getting very used to being alone with the kids, and whilst i was happy with this as i could spend time crafting and doing what i wanted to do, i realizes that the littlest one Fred and then Alex when he came along needed to socialize with others and though i took him places like soft play and the like i knew that really i needed to get out more. So just as we were preparing to close the doors on our shop, we were asked to put up a poster advertising for volunteers for the Gala, which as you will know from my summer posts i went to and started helping. Well as the Chairperson Debbie decided she would like to step down and leave the committee and would need a replacement and i volunteered. It was actually a very scary decisions to make as i wondered if i could do the job and pull it all off. I have been incredibly lucky as all the other committee members have stayed on board and also we have some new ones. So for the last 2 months i have been meeting with various people from the council and the fair and had meetings so i have finally familiarized myself with all that i need to do and feel that i can do it and not only that but what we have planned will hopefully be bigger and better than it has been for years. As well as all that i organized Breakfast with Santa to fund raise for the Gala and that went really well. We are now well into planning our next event which is choosing the new Queen for next year,

Also i have been involved in helping the PTFA at school organised the the annual Christmas Fair. This year we have a new Chairperson who is fab and has given the event a long overdue overhaul and we made more money than we have before. I started attending meetings at the the Children Center, which is where i go to Playgroup with Fred and also chatter group at the library. They have meeting called Parents forum who meet to discuss ideas and give feedback from there groups. My friend coaxed me into going and its something which i think is really important to the community. Anyway we arranged a Christmas Market. I ran some craft workshops with the Guides making Rag Wreaths and quilted Christmas decorations

On top of all the meetings and volunteering for all kinds of jobs for these events, i have run a couple of Crochet lessons, attended Christmas plays, Christmas Markets and lights switch ons. Made what feels like hundreds of Elsa hats..... i even had to enlist Pauls help with stranding the hair for them! But i got there in the end .
A few piccies , in no perticular order, of what we got up to, to be honest i took lots of the starts of things but not the finished products, basically we were just having fun and enjoying the moments and lots of family time.

Baby Alex's Aran jumper that i finished in November.

A Crochet Poppy. I saw lots of people wearing them and i made this for my mum to wear.

Decorating the tree.

 Family baking time we made Pizzas, buns and the christmas cake.

My Rag wreath i made to show the Guides what to do.

A sparkly Shrug i mage for a night out but didn't end up wearing.

The finished Christmas cake

A rare photo of me in the new dress hubby bought me for |Christmas

One lot of the 100 mince pies i made over Christmas

Making the kids advent calenders like a did last year.

 Christmas day pudding Chocolate orange and cranberry bomb.

Well thats about all i have photo wise, we did so much more and you will notice i started this post before Christmas, but never got round to finishing it. We all had a wonderful Christmas with lots of time to relax as Paul had two weeks over it. Lots of nice food and drink and plenty of crochet for me.

Hope you all had a good Christmas and have a wonderful new year!