Fitness Friday

Or should I call this not so fit Friday. Since mid January I have been battling some sort of fatigue thing. I put up with it - did what I could on days I felt good, took it easy when that was more my inclination and kept on keeping on. 

It finally got too much for me and I was starting to get a bit worried so I went to see my doctor who ordered blood tests for all sorts of things and on Wednesday I went back to see her and got the results. Basically they were able to rule out lots of nasty stuff and there were only a few things that were worthy of note - my Vitamin D was down again - well down and so was my platelet count. Also my cholesterol was up. Ho hum.

I have been slack this month with my Vitamin D tablets - kept forgetting to take it. I consulted Doctor Google and found that unexplained fatigue can be a symptom of Vitamin D deficiency. (I looked here). 

I found more information about it on Vitamin D on Jean Hailes website here which explained the various levels of Vitamin D deficiency. At 32 I am in the mild category, so not too alarming but not ideal.

SO...... I have been taking my Vitamin D and have actually started taking 2 of them (at one stage the Dr had me on 4 so I am not overdosing). They are 1000 mg each. I will do it for a week or so and then go back to just one.

I have also pushed myself a bit more; Not lain down whenever I have felt like it, gone for a morning and/or afternoon walk with the dog whatever my inclination. I have been more active during the day.

 

Also with feeling so low and lacking in energy and enthusiasm I was treating myself to all sorts of snacks - eating chocolates and chips and the like. So - no wonder the cholesterol was creeping up. I have cut back on the treats too. 

I am also trying to be a bit better with my bedtime routine. I haven't managed to get to be early early but have tried to get there by 11 and working on doing it earlier. (Had to write a blog post one night... so stayed up later) I am also not looking at my phone once I get into bed or during the night. I listen to podcasts to go to sleep or to put me back to sleep if I wake up. So that is all I am doing with my phone in bed - setting up the podcast and putting the phone on the bedside table. (I have blue tooth headphones now - so cool)
Fixit Guy had to go to Brisbane on Wednesday for a funeral. He won't be home till tomorrow night so I have had to be taking care of myself so that has helped push me along.

So between not doing much walking for over 3 weeks and eating all sorts of rubbish to make me feel better I have put on a bit of weight but not as much as I would have in the past. This morning I weighed 97.1kgs.

Exercise wise I have only made my 10 000 steps once this week but hoping that things will improve from here on in and I will be back to getting them regularly.

And because I haven't been walking as much I haven't taken any nature photos to delight you with... sorry. Actually haven't been walking by the river so much either. We go to the park with Pokemon stops fairly regularly for one but also Jack dog has been indicating he would rather walk around the block. It bemuses me cause when we go by the river he is off the lead and can run where he likes but when we go around the block he has to stay on the lead. Maybe he likes the extra smells on the block walk. 

Anyway here is my Jack this afternoon He was sleeping but woke up when I took the photo. He then looked hopeful that I would take him for a walk now or at least give him some attention but eventually sighed and looked away

Sunday Stash Report - a new year

I love the start of a new year with my stash report... get to start anew and forget all the purchases I made last year and start digging into the stash afresh for the year... except when the new year starts off with a splurge of fabric buying and no finishes so it was going to be all negative. Too avert that from happening I did a rush finish on a project.

Lets start with the fun stuff... the splurge. My daughter Fangirl (from Fangirl stitches) suggested to me over Christmas that I might like to consider having a stall at one of the geek conventions that she herself attends as a stall holder. Rather than going in on my own she suggested I team up with Gamergirl (my daugher-in-law) and share a stall. GG is an artist. She has a degree in games design and her speciality area was the art work. It coincided with my own thoughts along the same line. I sew a lot for Handmade With Love, a group that raises money for a school in Zambia called Our Rainbow House. I had purchased a variety of geeky fabric mid year and the things I had made from it had proved quite popular at our stalls leading up to Christmas and also on line.

Anyway - GG and I talked it over and have decided to give it a go. The next convention is in April but we both felt that was a little soon to get stock ready, particularly for her as she will have to design a whole portfolio based around the popular characters out there in the Geekisphere. So we are aiming for September which is quite a ways off but gives us both lots of time to prepare. (she is also going to look into producing stickers and badges which are popular at conventions).

So I went shopping at Make It Sew, the fabric shop close to Fangirl's home in Brisbane which specialises in fabrics from tv/movies and games. I only bought a bit over 7 metres  but when you consider fabric in Australia costs $25 plus per metre, that was quite an outlay. 

The shop owner gave me a 10% discount since I was sewing for charity which was lovely of her... but it was still a lot of money. I chose to get .5m in 14 different fabrics for a start plus 2 pieces from the discount basket .9m each. Now I am cogitating what to sew it into. I am thinking of zipper bags and pouches of various sizes for the main and perhaps a few potmits and hanging towels as well. Mostly though... bags of all sorts are popular my daughter assures me. I haven't ever been to one of these shows before so thinking I might attend the next one I can just to get an idea of what its like. 9.05m

I have managed one finish since I got home from our trip to Brisbane. My first finish for the year and finished off today so I could record a finish for the year to go with my input. I finished off a large cushion for the dogs. 

We have started letting them come into the sewing room when I am in it. (they were strictly out door dogs allowed in very occassionally) However I enjoy their company and decided that they could come in. They are pretty well behaved most of the time. I say "they" as whilst we only own one dog (Jack - an 8 year old Jack Russell cross) we dogsit every school day (and full time most school holidays) for a friend so Digby is ours most of the time as well.

 I bought a cheap dog bed to go in the room so they had somewhere to sleep but it was too small for the both of them, and mostly they don't share. 

I decided to make a cushion for the other one and stuff it with scraps and off cuts of fabric and batting. Initially I just made an "outer" but then realised that really it needed an inner too. Basically whilst the stuffing is washable it would be difficult to dry. If I made an inner and an outer I could at least wash the outer occassionally. So today... I whipped up an "inner" and transferred the stuffing to it, sewed it shut and then put it into the outer and again sewed it shut. I could have put in a zipper but didn't have one big enough. I could have put on buttons but a) I have yet to learn how to make button holes and b) the dogs would chew the buttons off I could be pretty sure. So... when I have to wash it I will unpick it, wash and then resew it closed. 

Digby on the cushion a few weeks ago. It took me a month or 2  to collect up the scraps to stuff the cushion with. You can see the pins on the left hand side.

Tadah. It was done. The cushion is 76cm square, approximately. I made it out of a rubber backed curtain off cut. 

I am going to start to make another one straight away. It will give me somewhere to put my wadding off cuts and "too tiny even for me" scraps. 2.16m

So my first report for this year sees me in the red. Hopefully it won't last long.

Week 1 and 2
Fabric used        2.16
Fabric added      9.05
Net usage         -6.89

Year to Date     
Fabric used         2.16
Fabric Added       9.05
Net Usage         -6.89

Linking up with Patchwork Times

Joining in the fun - Bonnie Hunter Mystery En Provence

I wasn't going to do this mystery. I've looked at some of her other mysteries in other years - entranced by the excitement generated on the web by other bloggers and podcasters who have been part of it. However I found her blog posts a little off putting - so wordy - I got lost. Actually it was the initial fabric selection posts that would put me off. All that talk of paint chips and inspiration - I would end up totally confused and so would back off.

This year my friend Lyndi was keen to go again. She had been part of last year's mystery quilt... Allietarie (or something like that) and was keen to go again. Then Pam and Lynne from The Stitch TV show talked about it... Pam has done the mystery quilts several years running now (and is always up to date and on time and ready for each new clue each week). Pam gave some clues as to how to approach it and how not to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of units you had to make. Then Daisy, from Lazy Daisy Quilts and reads talked about it (wrote about it?) on the Twilter Facebook group and ... well I was in. Daisy says she works out of her scrap box first and then pulls from her stash (well I think that is the gist of what she said) and I thought... yeah I can do that.

So starting yesterday I worked on the first clue (it was released on Friday 25th) This week we were to sew 221 4 patches from 2" neutral squares - 884 squares!

I cut my scraps along the lines that Bonnie Hunter suggests - cutting scraps into usable scrap units. In my case I cut units from 1.5" - 5" going up in 1/2" increments, then 6.5" and 10". I cut squares and strips (except 10" - only do squares of those)

So for this week's clue I went through my 2" scrap drawer - the squares and the strips and sewed up all of those into 2 patches. Then I went through my 4" scraps and found all my neutrals (mainly creams and whites and tone on tones of those colours and other pale patterns) and cut them down to 2" strips and squares. Then I went through the 4.5", 6" (at one stage I cut to that size too but no longer)

When they were all sewn into 2 patches I found I was still 75 2 patches (150 squares) short. 

Today I was going to go to my stash then and cut into yardage when I realised I had an overflowing scrap basket that I had yet to cut down into my usable units. I went through that and found heaps of neutral scraps that I was able to cut down. I sewed the remaining 75 2 patches and this afternoon (Monday) I completed the last of the 221 4 patches.

Ta Dah!

I don't know how I will go with the other colours that have been selected by Bonnie for the quilt. Whether I will continue on with the colour suggestions Bonnie has made or if I will change it up a little. I don't want to buy any fabric. That is my main consideration. I will work out of what I have. I am planning on continuing on with the method that Daisy has suggested. I will first use fabric from my scrap drawers and then cut from my stash if I need to. I don't plan to buy the speciality rules that she recommends. I have a couple of other HST rules that I will use if I can. I am hoping that her instructions will include how to do it with out the special rulers.

Now I need to go to bed. My dog is up past his bedtime so better go shut him in the laundry and go to sleep myself.

Are you joining in the Bonnie Hunter Mystery this year? How are you going with your efforts.

Linking up with Bonnie's Monday Linky Party

River walking

Our regions has been in the grip of a drought over the last few years. Parts of our state have been in drought for 4 years so its pretty dire in some places. Things were looking really dry and bare - even by the river. The water itself and the trees along its edge gave some relief to the parched look of the place but it was dry and brown and barren looking

But its summer here and that is when we get our rain. Its still drought in lots of our state but we have had some reasonable rain here where we are and the grass has grown and its all looking rather lush.

My river walk has been revived. The grass has gown long and green. Now when the dog Digby rushes off through the grass as she is want to do we can pick her out (when the grass isn't too tall) Her fur is the exact colour of the dry grass so she is hard to spot when its not green.

Jack our other dog is even shorter than Digby but he is white and brown and so stands out pretty well in dry or fresh grass.

We hadn't had much rain before we went away on holidays. A few showers but not much. While we were away over Christmas the area got some good falls and in fact when we got back to town (January 2nd) it was a bit wet and muddy to walk by the river on the occasions I stirred my stumps to actually go out with the dogs. Finally a week or so ago it was dry enough to walk down that way again and its been beautiful. The grass is long and green. There isn't much in the way of wildflowers around but the grasses are in seed and they are beautiful in their own way.

Friday Fitness

This week I feel like I am back on track.

On Sunday I pushed myself to run in the Mothers' Day Classic (well Fixit Guy did some pushing too) I ran the 7km route in 59.34 mins. I didn't come last but there weren't many from the running group behind me.

I have walked at least once a day this week and on two occasions I did a bit of running too. I've restarted the C25K program I was doing and trying to run harder in the running intervals. Mostly doing it so as to get some interval training in the mix.A friend has suggested that I try the C2 10 K program and that would be a reasonable idea too. Will look into it.

I went to the Dr on Tuesday to get my blood test results. I don't have a recurrence of the Barmah Forrest virus thankfully (test was negative) so last week I must have had some virus or perhaps the go slows cause it got a bit colder combined with exhaustion from huge weeks

However the blood tests showed that I have high cholesterol. I told the Dr I hadn't had it before but he said that last time it was also raised. If they don't tell you you can't really know. I didn't get the results. Its not too high... not it the panic stations area yet. I was 6,4 last time and 6.7 this time. Fixit Guy was told he had high cholesterol a few years ago (15yrs ago or so) and as a family we made lots of changes then. When the doctor went through the basic Do's and Don'ts I felt that we did a lot of the do's and didn't do a lot of the don'ts already. Sigh. But I have been a bit slack lately (lots of chocolate is consumed in the production of a play I have found - especially post Easter when a lot is on special) I am going to be trying hard to reduce the levels by diet as I don't want to go onto medication if I can help it. (Besides Fixit Guy controlled his by diet so if he can, I can... I am NOT competitive)

When announced this on Facebook I got quite a few suggestions from friends as to diet suggestions, additives, things to cut out and include. I am not interested in going Paleo although a simpler style of cooking is always good. We basically don't use many pre made sauces or prepackaged meals because Fixit Guy is excluding a lot of things trying to control a sensitivity he has developed. I am happy to try LSA as suggested by one friend (Linseed, Sunflower and Almond ground up together). I've had porridge a couple of times this week for breakfast. Today though i have lashed out and had a repeat of my mother's day breakfast (only one croissant though.. It was to use up the bacon and the left over croissant.)

My weight has dropped a bit this week. Back down to 88 kgs which is pleasing. Hopefully not eating any shop bought biscuits or cakes, easing right back on the chocolate, only have a little bit of cake on occasions, will help me lose some more. 

I have really been picking up my steps too. I had a few really low step days last week with feeling so tired and having visitors. However from Sunday I have managed over 10 000 steps each day and have climbed to the top of my friends list on Fitbit. One of my friends, who always creamed us with averaging 17 000 steps a day, had an accident and broke her leg in 3 places so needless to say she has fallen right down to the bottom of the rankings. Get well soon Terje. We all wanted to catch you... but not that way.

The dogs have enjoyed the extra walking I have been doing. Bumbles was here for about 10 days now she has gone and we probably won't dog sit here again as her family have moved 600kms away. The dogs are looking at a kangaroo on the other side of the gate. The phone photo doesn't show it up too well but it is there.

Random photo of Jack cause I had it

And another one. He was barking at me cause I was trying to get a photo of Digby and he was jealous. The Digby photos were nothing. I love this one of Jack

Tuesday Musing

Not sure what I will do on a Tuesday for my blog. I might not end up doing something every Tuesday but when I do... it'll be my Tuesday Museday!!

First Day of April. Time to set some goals for April. Trying not to set them too high so that I won't fall flat splat kerplop on my face. My goals for this month

Finish Sombrero Stars (quilt 3 of SOMB quilts... Shirt Off My Back)
Finish Not so Sombre Stars
Make an Easter Wall Hanging
Empty Scrap basket - cut into useful units and put away
Look for and hopefully find Tea Shop Applique Quilt pattern (I bought it in England in September but managed to lose it)

This is SOMBrero Stars. Finished putting the top together tonight. Now to make a back and quilt it!! You can see my shadow as I stood on a stool to take the photo

Not So SOMBre Stars. All the pieces are cut up and in their box.. Apart from the 5" 9 patches (which were part of the 350 or so I made from the shirt fabrics from the swap) no stitching has been done. But cutting all the pieces was a mamoth effort so it is well on the way

The fabrics and buttons purchased for my tea shop quilt. Finding the pattern is going to be a challenge. After I got back from the UK my husband and I went on a camping holiday in Southern and then Northern inland NSW. I bought fabric for it at several shops. I had the pattern then. Since we got home and I unpacked all my stuff... I haven't seen it. Oh dear.

Annie Dog

I took Annie to the vet today and they removed a heap of fluid from her lung by syringe. The vet is going to check some of the fluid under the microscope and will be able to tell if the fluid is from tumour or something else apparently. She came home after a couple of hours and is happy enough. She refused to come for a walk today (or a stroll... she rides in the stroller) She did come this morning and even walked for some of it. She seems a lot brighter in the mornings. If there are tumours then it will be just care and attention till we think her quality of life is too diminished. If it is treatable then we will treat her. The vet said to give her the diuretic tablets but she is becoming very wily and it was a battle to get them into her tonight... she puts her tongue up in the way to stop the tablet going down but we won in the end.

Annie on our morning walk. She is quite comfortable in the pram and seems to enjoy the outings

Annie and I

Our other dog Jack who is always looking for any extra attention that is going