Fitness Friday

I ran one day only this week. On Monday with my husband walking I did a bit of a run. My phone had gone flat so couldn't use any of the timing programs I have on that (I have Endomondo, C25K in a couple of versions, Nike and even my Fitbit has something that times how long you have been running for. Not to mention the timer on the phone. So instead I was running and counting in my head. I would run whilst I counted to 300. Not 300 steps but hopefully 300 seconds but who knows. Then I would walk for 100 and go again. Well that was the plan. Somewhere along the line I did manage to run 3 lots of 300 steps and my watch sort of agreed that it was 5 minutes each time. I would have liked to have done more but.... yeah I didn't. 

Now Fixit Guy has retired he is happy to walk with me the mornings I don't walk with my walking buddy. Maree and I are supposed to walk 3 times a week but sometimes she is away, or I am away, or one of us is  not feeling too well. I like walking with FG. I enjoy his company but when I walk with him I am not so inclined to run... will have to force myself to do it though or I will lose my running legs. (ok my shuffling jogging legs.)

Walking with Fixit Guy and Jack beside the river. It is so very dry here now. We desperately need rain. 

 Have managed to walk twice a day Monday to Friday this week and once Saturday and Sunday. I have made my 10 000 step target all but one day this week and my 7 day count yesterday was 84 000 which was pleasing. Some of my friends had some big days over last weekend and I had had some low days over the weekend the week before so I slipped down the list on my Fitbit friends. However having kept up my steps this week (and my friends reverting to normal behaviour lol) I am back to 3rd. One friend has been making a concerted effort to up his steps and he is consistently out in front along with a friend of my daughters who is a gym fiend and runs heaps there. I don't dream of catching them. If I ever overtake them I know its cause they haven't synched for a while.

And my weight. back up to 89.6 this morning. Not sure why I have jumped up again. I did eat 3 rock cakes yesterday and my evening meal was pretty hefty but mostly veggies. However I still can't get motivated to track my food.

Random photo of Jack. You can never have too many photos of Jack. Its been a bit cooler here of late again. Jack has been enjoying his sleeping bag. 

After church on Sunday we had a shared lunch and then a game of cricket at a church member's property. I was on the fielding team

Throwback Thursday - Jeany's Quilt

For just over 13 years I have been a member of an online group, connected by email, called Buddies.We all had strong connections with the Australian Breastfeeding Association - counsellors or community educators. Some of us have since resigned from the association but we have remained members of Buddies

We have shared many things over that time - marriages of our children (and ourselves) births of children and grandchildren, graduations, new jobs, redundancies, health worries, new homes and cars, our hobbies and passions and also deaths: of our parents and grandparents and  sadly some children and husbands as well.

One of our group is Jeany. She and I had lived in the same town for several years before she married. She had children after I left town. We were both teachers and had association with the same church. She became a counselor after the birth of her first daughter and so our acquaintance was renewed. Later we also had a lot to do with each other through an student exchange group called AFS. 

When her 3rd daughter was only a few months old her husband Mike was in a vehicle accident and he died a few weeks later. Such a devastating thing for a young family. Buddies, spread through out Australia, felt her pain and wanted to reach out to her. One way we did this was to make her a quilt. I helped co-ordinate it. Each Buddy made a heart square to be included (or if they couldn't sew then another buddy made one for them) and we chose a square of picture fabric, which some how represented that person, to go with their square. It took a little while to get the quilt organised but eventually it was made and I got to take it to Jeany as I lived only a couple of hours away from her and we had an AFS activity together.

Jeany on Right and I with her quilt

Looking at the "conversation" square with each heart I am having fun trying to remember what the connections were. I know I had a lot of fun choosing the fabric to put with which heart. People were given the opportunity to suggest fabric for themselves but of course it was tricky to find the fabrics they wanted in our stashes. Bit expensive to go buy fabric to suit each person.

Linking up with Throwback Thursday at Quiltin Jenny's

WIP Wednesday

This week I have been working on my Black and White Trip (with a touch of red) Trip Around the World. First of all it now has a name. Gretchen commented that the name of the quilt reminded her of the kids joke "What's black and white and red/read all over?" to which the answer can be a newspaper or (her more favoured) a sunburned zebra. It had reminded me of the joke too and so I decided that I would call it Sunburnt Zebra.

So Sunburnt Zebra has been my quilting project this week. Having ironed all the pieces at patchwork group last week I got to start playing with layouts on my design board. My first attempt I didn't have the centre block centred on my design wall so didn't get very far.

Then I rearranged it, realising I would have to squish things up to get most of it on to get an idea of the pattern. In the above picture I had white on the inside and black on the outside. I decided it looked more balanced to have the same on both sides.

I redid the pattern starting from one side and working my way across the board. The board was neither high enough nor wide enough to fit the whole design on. I was able to widen the board by unrolling a bolt of batting, balancing it on the shelf that ran along the wall the design wall was on, and letting the batting hang beside the wall. The two rows that didn't fit on the bottom of the design could go on the floor.

First two rows sewn together. Looking at the photos helped me decide to make the centre red triangles all the same fabric

I was pretty sure I was going to have to do lots of unpicking with this quilt - I was sure I would put blocks on the wrong way, have them upside down, or sew the wrong side but I managed to get the whole thing together without problem. 

I got it finished today - yay

Now I am working out borders. 

Originally I had planned to use red for the borders and binding and had bought the fabric for this but now think it might be a bit much. I might loose the dramatic affect of the red rows if there is too much other red. Now thinking of perhaps a narrow black border - half the width of the hst blocks and then bind it in red. I have a few different ones to choose from. What do you think? 

Apart from Sunburnt Zebra the only other quilty thing I have done this week was to get my box of green fabrics out and to locate my cream tone on tones and put them together. That is the start of my Disappearing Hourglass quilt

I started a 31 Day decluttering challenge with Forever organised

I blogged about it here 

Hmm. Haven't been going so well cause the first few days there wasn't a lot for me to declutter. Honestly, all the things that she talked about I had basically done. I did clean off my desk instead and we got rid of a heap of stationary items. Today's item was Guilt Clutter. What is this? Jess from Forever Organised Explains it really well on the Facebook Group she has set up for this challenge. I think we crafters can apply this really well to our fabric too

Guilt Clutter 

 I have had lots of people ask what guilt clutter is so I am going to go into more detail here. 
Guilt Clutter is anything you are holding on to purely because you would feel guilty if you were to get rid of it.

Some examples:
- something you paid a lot of money for but no longer has any use
- a gift given to you by a friend or relative
- belongings of a friend or relative who has passed
- an item given to you by a friend or relative who has passed

Guilt clutter is different to sentimental clutter. Sentimental items are things that you love and have no desire to remove from your home. Guilt clutter is something you do not love and are only holding onto it because you feel bad giving it away.

Go through the typical decluttering questions:
- Do I love it?
- Do I need it?
- Do I use it?
- Does it enrich my life?

If you answered no to each of these questions but still can not bring yourself to get rid of it, it is guilt clutter!

Now, why should you get rid of it?

Everyone who is here in this group is here for a reason... We are all in pursuit of that elusive completely organised home. You don't feel happy with your home, you don't love your home, you can't stand looking at all the stuff any longer, your home is packed full of clutter.

I hate to break it to you but you can not organise clutter, it is impossible (and kind of silly). To get to the point where you are ready to organise your home, you need to declutter everything you no longer love or need or use.

A good portion of these items are going to be guilt clutter. Things you don't love but feel like you have to keep.

Every time you walk into your home, you are surrounded by things that make you feel guilty and probably a little resentful. By getting rid of those things, you are freeing up your home to be yours, to be filled with items you love.

Each of us has a finite amount of space in our homes, we don't have never ending space and most of us are not able to just buy a bigger home when this one gets too full. You need to remove the guilt clutter to make room for items that you and your family love (or simply to make room for your family). 

Linking up with 

and

WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays 

Sunday Stash Report

I had a finish. I have already told you all about it. In fact I think I have mentioned it in every blog post since I got it done on  Tuesday night.

"Disappearing into the Blue" is finished. Yay.

 I wrote extensively about it on WIP Wednesday so look here for lots of pictures but I will repeat just a few... since you asked (you did ask didn't you?)

The block was the Disappearing Pinwheel as demonstrated by Jenny Doan of the MIssouri Quilt Company  here I started it as part of a quilt along sort of thing done by Twilters... a group of quilters on Twitter. (anyone can be a twilter. Just hop on line and start following the various people who chat about quilter there. Look for #twilter to find some of us) 

Its final dimensions were 241cm x 268 cm or 92"x105" and it used (wait for it) 14.68m of fabric. (maybe more since it was a completely pieced back which uses a lot more fabric than if you use whole pieces or large strips but we'll let it go at that) I was so excited to get it done and onto the bed. 5 days later I still haven't made the label for it and I do want to get that done as I like to label all of my quilts, even the ones I keep for myself. Its on the bed and looks fabulous. It will get slept under for the first time this next weekend when we have some billets overnight for an Emmaus Board meeting. Hope whoever it is appreciates it!

So my statistics for the year look a bit healthier

Used this week:                        14.59m
Added this week                          0

Year to Date Used                     115.17
Year to Date added                     79.27
Net Used                                    35.90       

Linking up with Sunday Stash Report @ Patchwork Times                            

a few more linky parties I have found

I found some more linky parties whilst looking at another blog Katie Mae Quilts Some of the ones she linked with I already had but these are some that I didn't have. Some are specific ie making baby quilts or cat posts but others are more generally quilting. Some are for any crafting projects. I will combine the lists that I have and do a blurb about each one but that might take some time so in the meantime for those interested

TGIFF @ Quokka Quilts

Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

Link A Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts
Sew Darn Crafty @ Sew Many Ways

Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation

Let's Make Baby Quilts @ Michelle's Romantic Tangle

Feline Friday @ Sarah Did It!

Finish-Along @ The Littlest Thistle {FAL List}

Fitness Friday

So - Friday again. Time to Fess up as they say

I have tried to keep up my walking but haven't felt motivated to run. I blame Fitness Guy's retirement. He is happy to come walking with me in the morning when my walking pal isn't available. I enjoy his company... why run when I can share the walk with him.

My walking stats suffered a bit this week. I didn't meet my 10 000 step mark 3 days Friday Saturday or Sunday due to travel and/or meetings on those days. I have slipped down my friends list on Fitbit partly as a result of that and also because a couple of them have really upped their steps this week. Currently I have 77 936 steps for the last 7 days. Hopefully will get some more steps in this afternoon when we walk the dogs again.

Weight wise. Yes well. FG put new batteries in the scales at long last and the increased good living over the last month hasn't gone unnoticed. Oops. I was back up to 90kgs on Monday morning. All I can say is that I am glad we kept up our walking over the time the boys were  home and then our week of holidays or it would have been a lot worse. I have been back on the straight and narrow (though not tracking I admit) and after 4 days have lost 1kg so that is a start. Its the easy kg to lose the rest will be a hard slog. We are going out tonight to a celebration for the locally based charity "Our Rainbow House". That will no doubt involved lots of yummy food and alcoholic beverages so will have to resist. If we walk down to the venue and back that might be a start

A few pictures from my walks this week. I got two walks along the beach at Tannum Sands

Its really drying off around here. This photo was taken late afternoon so the colours aren't as vibrant as they shoudl be but the grass is brown in many places. The two birds you can make out in this shot are pelicans. I haven't seen them around our town before this year. Previous to seeing these two on the river we had seen some out at our local dam. If waterholes out west are drying up it may have sent them to us.

31 Days of Decluttering

Jess from Forever Organised has organised a Spring Organising Challenge with 31 days of decluttering and I have decided to join it






 Have to admit that some of these are going to be easy.

3. Bath toys... don't have any (no kids at home and no grandchildren to cater for)
15 Kids clothes... same reason as above
27 kids toys ... as above
30 Kids artwork.. same as above

18 Bath Towels... did those when we redcorated the bathrooms last month
23 Cosmetics ... did this when we did the ensuite.
29 Bathroom products ... not sure what they are referring to here but everything to do with the bathroom been done. When you have to empty the room so that it can gutted you tend to go through everything.

So I get a pass on 7 days.

28 is half done already too... office desk. Yesterday Fixit Guy and I tidied the top of my desk in the kitchen. There is still some stuff to put away (the desk got cleared... the kitchen table and the bench are now a bit cluttered) I do want to do the drawers though.

20 Email inbox has also been done reasonably recently and was having another blitz on it yesterday. I am working at unsubscribing from a heap of emails that I seem to be getting. I am also setting up heaps of rules so that things get diverted to separate folders. I get heaps of emails related to shows, airfares and accommodation. Now they all go into one folder and I can do wholesale deletions if I'm not looking at travelling any time soon. Its great

But .... did you see 25? Craft supplies. Egad. Just a day to do them? Well - have to say that I have gone through them this year. There has been some culling and lots of tidying so maybe that won't be the huge task it would have been. But still. Ask a crafter to sort through her stuff in one day.

And 26. Books, CDs and DVDs. That will be quite a job too

6 Guilt clutter and 21 Someday clutter have me scratching my head a bit. Not sure what these will entail but will see as we get to them.

Today's challenge was declutter shoes. I failed miserably. To be fair I don't have any where near the number of shoes some people have. I have a large foot. I wear a size 12 Australian sizing which is the same as the US or 10 in the UK or 42.5 European sizing. So, as the saying goes... I have a good grip on Australia. Usually I have to buy my shoes in specialist shoe shops, ones that cater for larger sizing. They are more expensive than what many people pay for their shoes. I am not used to having a choice in my shoes. . I don't go looking for a red shoe or a high heeled silver shoe or anything like that. Nope for me its the one that fits. And are comfortable. I have in the last few years found that some of the Factory Outlet shops do carry the larger sizes... well Dianna Ferrari, Hush Puppy, etc do. If I would go in there I would find my large sizes, in a few styles and much cheaper than usually. I'm not used to having a choice. If it fits and is comfortable I buy it. So when I would find a number of shoes that fitted this description that were also on sale I would not be able to buy a choice and would come out with multiple pairs. This has only happened a few times

In the last 18 months or so a lovely shoe shop has opened in Brisbane called the Shoe Garden and she ONLY carries shoes size 10 and up and she won't get a shoe in UNLESS it is available in 10-12 and she does carry larger again. She likes funky modern shoes. Me I don't care too much about shoes.

What I am trying to say is that - I don't have a huge array of shoes - 18 at the most. (the men in my life would be amazed I say that's not a huge amount. Fixit Guy probably has 10 though... 3 pair of those are work boots :) ) There are a few pair I could probably get rid of cause I don't wear them very much. Hmmm might revisit this. Meanwhile I did tidy them up. Here is the before and after shots