What a difference a year makes...

It's about one year since I started my weight loss journey. Over the year I've steadily lost an average of 1.1 lbs per week, and for the most part either lost (either a little or a lot) or stayed the same each week. I gained 4 times - once after 4 weeks in the US, at Christmas and New Year and on 2 other weeks when I perhaps tried to squeeze too much fun (and too much food) in. I'm now an amazing 4 stone 2.5lbs lighter (that's 58.5lbs for the non-UK types), and 3 dress sizes smaller - and I feel fantastic! I still have a way to go to be a healthy weight - I'm just on the border between obese and overweight for my height right now - but I'm in no rush!!

A while ago Dani said I should post some before and after pictures - and having got all dolled up for a family wedding at the weekend, it seems like the right time to share a photo of the new, slimmer me!!! But first the before pics... this was tricky, as like many people, I had a tendency to shy away from the camera. So these were taken a few months before I joined weight watchers - my guess is I was a few pounds heavier at that first weigh-in, but to be honest I really don't know!!

March 2009 - at a stitch and bitch at Sonia's. Left to right: Sonia, Emma and Pam, then me working on Fantasy Triptych.

July 2009, on holiday in Wales.

January 2011 (with the benefit of a new hair cut!!), with Eddy, at Trudy's wedding. Love the Monsoon dress and shrug I picked up in the sales...

Today I was a good ww girl, and went for a swim, instead of spending all day on my arse stitching... although I plan to put the not moving from the stitching sofa plan into action as soon as I've posted this. And I have a little finish to share with you tomorrow.

Happy stitching :)

Fantasy Triptych Progress

I've not had a huge amount of stitching time, but when I have, I've picked up FT. I've finished the big trees in the background, and (since taking these photos earlier today), have started on the half stitch far background:





I've been making steady progress with weight watchers, and hit a major goal yesterday - I've now lost 3 stone 1lb (43 lbs). Yeah!!! Since I started back in January, I've lost 1.4lbs a week on average - sometimes more, sometimes less, or not at all. I've only put on weight twice - both after holidays - 3lbs after the 4-week long trip to the US at Easter, and 0.5lb after the weeks holiday last week. People are really beginning to notice the difference, and it's really nice seeing my old face reappear from the chubbiness I had before!!!

This weekend I'm having a long weekend - took tomorrow off work. I'm driving to Sheffield tomorrow for a new hair cut (admittedly a long way to go for a hair cut, but my hairdresser there is AMAZING, and I still go back after living in Leeds for 6 years!). Then on to Nottingham, where I'm meeting my mum for some retail therapy, followed by dinner out. I'm staying at the flat in Nottingham with Eddy overnight, then we are off to Birmingham again on Saturday - will see Paul and Margaret, have dinner out that night with good friends, then it's our niece's Christening on Sunday. Busy busy busy...

Long weekend stitching

This was a long weekend in the UK... I took full advantage and booked the rest of the week off work!! We've been away for most of the weekend, and got back home a few hours ago.

On Friday night we enjoyed a fabulous curry with friends at our local restaurant.On Saturday we went to Sheffield for a BBQ at Kay's - it was fantastic to catch up with the Sheffield crowd - many of whom we've not seen since Kay's BBQ last August!!

At about 6 we left and headed south to Birmingham to see Eddy's parents. Last week Paul went into full-time care, and we wanted to see how he was settling in, and how Margaret was adapting to the change. All seemed good, and it's very obvious that Margaret has made the right decision - Paul's dementia has reached a level where he really needs 24 hour care. He seems to be settling in OK at the home - although he's already lost his slippers and acquired someone else's glasses (thankfully EVERYTHING is named)... He's there on a 1-month trial, hopefully everything will go well, and he'll be settled there permanently - it's quite nice for a home, with lots going on, and very clean.

On Monday we went to Coughton Court, just south of Birmingham - it's the family seat of the Throckmortons, who looked after Mary Queen of Scots while she was imprisoned. There was a chemise on display reputed to have been the one she wore when she was beheaded. The lace edging was wonderful, and it is embroidered with something in Latin about Mary being a martyr - sorry, can't remember what exactly, but the cross stitches were so tiny and neat. Although it's probably of the period I have my doubts that she really wore it when she was beheaded (it was too clean for one thing...), but it was fantastic to look at. I also had a naughty buy - a lovely metal two-seater garden bench, which was on sale... we'll have to put it together tomorrow!

And now for the stitching part of this post... I took 2 pieces with me - the LHN ornament I started last week, and Fantasy Triptych. We spent Sunday afternoon (which was quite cold) and all of the evenings watching movies, so I made great progress... I finished the ornament, and did loads of the background on FT:

Winter Sampler, (c) Little House Needleworks
Stitched in Weeks and GAST on Sparklies' Parchment

Fantasy Triptych, (c) Teresa Wentzler

Finally, I had a wonderful surprise when I got home and checked blogger - I won a giveaway on Heidi's blog!!!! She is giving away some amazing beaded scissor fobs... I'm so excited!!!

A perfect weekend

This weekend has been so lovely. And it's hard to say what exactly made it perfect... we did very little, but achieved a lot, and were very chilled out all of the time. Plus I did LOADS of crafts... and not all cross stitch!

On Friday night I finished Sunflower charms, and picked up Peacock firescreen. We ate a veggie lasagne - courgette and swiss chard - with roast potatoes, and most of the veggies were homegrown.

Saturday I did the food shopping, started Pooh and Eeyore, I blogged and did some knitting in front of Wallander (the Swedish version, which I LOVE. I can knit and read subtitles, a useful new form of multitasking...). Eddy did loads of tidying in the garden. We watched a movie. I sorted through my wardrobe - only 6 items that are too small, and lots that are too big have been moved to the spare wardrobe ready to be given to charity or part exchange for money off (a new Monsoon initiative, which I can't wait to take advantage of). I don't have many clothes, but at least I know which ones fit. I still need to sort through the shelves though... many t-shirts!

Sunday I did some more on Pooh and Eeyore, Dave came over and fixed out dripping tap (this has been an epic tale of non-tap fixing until now...), we harvested artichokes and potatoes, and ate artichokes and peas, Greek-style roast potatoes, feta and bread for lunch - and ate on the patio, for once it wasn't cold and rainy. I pulled out some quilting stuff and made 3 blocks - my second attempt at quilting and much more successful than last time! I took Eddy to the station (not so good) then came home and cooked some new weight watchers recipes - for tea tonight and for tomorrow.

So for not doing much I was pretty busy! Now I just need to pick a movie and a craft and veg out until bedtime. Until then, here are some photos of the results of my labour (none of the knitting though - I've now done 45cm of the scarf, but it looks pretty similar to last time!):

I'm Back!!!

Well I had a fabulous week in Chicago and weekend in St Louis. I have lots of photos to share, but am very jet lagged (really want my bed right now... I need to stay awake for another 4 hours minimum though), so this will be a short post!

As the beginning of April came and went while I was away I missed setting my goals for the month, so here we go:

March goals (recap):
1) bs centre panel and do xs of border on FT I did the bs and some of the border
2) continue with my lace yes, not as often as I'd have liked, but I'm very happy with the progress
3) start Elliot and Buttons Wedding Day, and make good progress started just before I left and I took this to the States with me
4) sort out chart for birth sampler for Jamie's son, possibly kit up nope!
5) stitch a little of waiting for ships I stitched on the A LOT!!
6) stitch a little of Peacock firescreen didn't touch it
7) stitch a little of Eeyore's problem or this...

So, what to do in April???

1) complete xs on Elliot and Buttons
2) finish FT border (but not bs)
3) work on Waiting for ships
4) stitch a small (top secret) gift
5) anything else I feel like

I won't say anything much about my trip, but I do have a short stash report.

We were disappointed by City Stitches in Chicago - mostly needlepoint, much less xs than their website made me believe, but I picked up 1 spool of the Kreinik I needed for WfS, and an old copy of Stitcher's World (Nov 2004) - which has some nice Christmassy stuff in
Stitches etc in St Charles was MUCH better!! I LOVE that shop. I came away with 4 charts:

Woolen sheep (The cricket collection)
Heartstruck friends (Midnight stitching)
Heartstruck Quakers (Midnight stitching)
Quaker Pin Cushions (Milady's needle)

I would have spent longer in the shop and way more money if I wasn't in the middle of my little patch of bad luck... While in Chicago I realised my visa card was being used fraudulently. Luckily only £150 had gone through before I noticed, and it looks like I'll get that back, but cancelling your visa just before paying a hotel bill of $500 is pretty scary stuff... Then my flight home yesterdays was cancelled. All of the alternatives were full, then I remembered Delta fly to Manchester from Atlanta - and luckily there were seats left (very comfy ones at that), so I got home on time to meet the boiler guy who was supposed to fix my boiler. Except he cancelled today, the spare part will be another 1-2 weeks. So we still don't have heating or hot water. Boy am I pleased I joined that gym... just around the corner from home too!! Oh yes, and the freezer decided to defrost itself (it did need defrosting, but preferably without all of the food in it). This is going to be an expensive month...

But on the plus side I snapped this lovely rainbow out of my frotn door this afternoon!

Busy weekend!

wow, this weekend has flown by! Friday night I travelled down to Nottingham and stayed in the flat with Ed. On Saturday he had to work, so I popped over to see my folks - mum is doing amazingly after her knee op. I can tell she's going to be up and about and up to trouble in no time!! I'm also pretty impressed that she's sticking to doctor's orders re: resting and physio exercises. She was busy watching one of my DVDs when I arrived - the latest Jane Eyre by the BBC. I really enjoyed watching the not-quite-a-wedding scene with her!

Later that afternoon I drove back to Nottingham, picked Ed up and we went down to Birmingham to see his folks. Sadly his Dad is getting worse, it's really heartbreaking. There's so little we can do to help. But we had an enjoyable evening watching TV as a family and just chatting - although with Paul it's mostly nonsense. He gets really annoyed if we can't understand him, and recently we've learnt that nodding and saying yes when he's muddled is often the easiest, and nicest way of dealing with the dementia.

We went back to Nottingham Sunday lunchtime, then I came back up to Leeds, and immediately hit the gym. It was a good workout but I wasn't feeling as motivated as on Thursday. I'm hoping to get to the gym 4 times this week - we'll see how that goes!

Anyway, I did a little stitching on Waiting for Ships over the weekend. It looks so odd without the BF, but I'm determined to wait a month and get it while I'm in the States - it will be so much cheaper!



I also took a photo of Fantasy Triptych this morning. I've not stitched on it so far this month, but hopefully I'll pick it up tonight for TW Monday. I'm hosting a stitch and bitch here tonight, so it'll depend on how mad the house feels.. the BSing I have to do looks a little tricky!



I picked Birth Band up from the framers this weekend too - I had to pop by twice as there was some fluff behind the glass, but they sorted it quickly. I was really happy with the combination of mount and frame - they suited the colours perfectly. Irritatingly it was a little dark when I took the photo which didn't do the colours full justice:



Happy stitching everyone

Ornie stitching

I'm still here, still stitching, but as I'm focussing on ornies for exchanges and gifts I can't post any photos..yet! So far I've finished 3 and started my 4th - not bad at all!

Last weekend Ed and I went to Birmingham to see his parents. His Dad has vasular dementia (he's only 65), so we try and visit frequently to help as much as we can - usually I take Margaret out somewhere and Ed does something with Paul. Last weekend M and I hit the shops - having 2 sons she isn't used to epic, slow, girly shopping trips, so I've had to teach her. She's doing very well, and now understands that a nice lunch, plus at least one trip to a coffee shop, are an essential part of the day. As is browsing and having a laugh - the goal is to have fun, not just buy things (although that helps). She's learning well! We didn't do as well as last time, when we came home with a new TV, video/DVD recorder, iron, clothes etc etc. But we did pretty well, making a good start with Christmas shopping (very early for me), and getting lots of clothes and shoes. To be honest I've not had such a good clothes shop since I was a lot younger and a lot smaller - I'm very fussy and won't buy anything that doesn't fit well - difficult as a rather curvy size 20/22 (UK size)... clearly fat people shouldn't have waists... Anyway, I digress - we hit Monsoon (my favourite shop) where the clothes are beautiful, well made, FIT ME, and, erm, cost a fortune. We got there at 4.45 and paid just after they shut at 5.30... I bought jeans, a skirt, 2 blouses and a cardy... and I'd already got another cardy and some pjamas earlier on in the day! Luckily M decided she'd make a contribution, as my Christmas present. She did well too, getting new shoes, a jumper and some undies. We also got some books, and treated ourselves to Lush bath bombs. It was great fun.

A while ago I got Benjamin Bunny Birth Sampler framed, and gave it to Helene for Amelie, but I didn't share a photo. Here is is:

September starts

well, I've been pretty busy of late, but most of it has been fun!!

Ed and I took a week off work. We didn't go away, just stayed at home. We did several jobs that had been waiting for a while, went blackberry-ing (is that a word) - I couldn't stitch much that day beacuse my hands were purple, but Eddy's were worse:



We then made a VERY thick and sticky blackberry jam (our first ever attempt - clearly overcooked, but tastes brilliant). We ate lots from our garden too. The best was peas and artichokes. The peas were Bird's Eye, but the artichokes, onion and dill were all home grown. We worked out the artichokes would have cost us £10 in a supermarket. I hope the plants last the winter...

We went to Leeds to the Royal Armouries to see the weapons in films exhibition. We were both a bit spoddy in the LOTR section which was amazing. Reminded me why I wanted to be a costume designer as a teenager (I even looked into it for Uni until I realised that I'm crafty, not creative and imaginative). We also bough curtain poles, which ended up costing a fortune because I'm fussy, and I even made the 3 curtains (hall window, landing window and front door). Now I just need the poles we ordered to arrive and a free weekend to hang them.

I did quite a bit of stitching and started 2 projects, Dracolair's Phoenix and a Winnie the Pooh called 'Eyore's Problem' - it's the Pooh sticks story. I made Eddy pick somehting from my stash (I'm stash only stitching for a while because of the curtain poles), and that piece was his choice.




I just saw a fun 'where have you been' map thing on Sara's blog, here are my travels:



It took me ages to work out where Alaska was on the US map. My biggest problem with the states is I tend to end up in the same place. I've been to Missouri 3 times. Twiced to visit Phil and Amanda, which is very cool, but why did I have to have a conference there too???? Hopefully next year I'll be able to add Chicago - I don't think O'Hare really counts... Of course I'll try and visit Phil and Amanda again too :) I should add that Phil and Amanda have just got the Pooh calendar I stitched for Jack framed and it looks brilliant!

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

I'm clearly a northern European traveller, but I'm impressed by the lack of gaps... The island in the med confused me, until I realised it was highlighted as part of France... My Geography knowledge is dreadful!

I'm back at work now, term starts on Monday and we meet the students tomorrow. Of course I'm not ready. I worked until 8pm tonight. One day I'll learn...